Mukherjee- Mubarak

·         On July 2, 2008 in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, EAM Pranab Mukherjee reiterated that “India is committed to revitalizing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)”.

·        Egypt is forthcoming chairman of the 118-member grouping next year.

Mission IAS’2009

·         President Mubarak, referring to India's economic growth, raised possibility of increased economic cooperation in the areas of IT, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and energy

·         India is the largest importer of Egyptian products and became its fourth largest trade partner last year.

·         Their bilateral trade volume stands at $2.3 billion currently.
 

• The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries was created and founded during the collapse of the colonial system and the independence struggles of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions of the world and at the height of the Cold War.

• During the early days of the Movement, its actions were a key factor in the decolonization process, which led later to the attainment of freedom and independence by many countries and peoples and to the founding of tens of new sovereign States. Throughout its history, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has played a fundamental role in the preservation of world peace.

•  While some meetings with a third-world perspective were held before 1955, historians consider that the Bandung Asian-African Conference is the most immediate antecedent to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

• This Conference was held on April 18-24, 1955 and gathered 29 Heads of States belonging to the first post-colonial generation of leaders from the two continents with the aim of identifying and assessing world issues at the time and pursuing out joint policies in international relations.

•  The principles that would govern relations among large and small nations, known as the "Ten Principles of Bandung," were proclaimed at that Conference. Such principles were adopted later as the main goals and objectives of the policy of non-alignment.

• The fulfillment of those principles became the essential criterion for Non-Aligned Movement membership; it is what was known as the "quintessence of the Movement" until the early 1990s.