15th Summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Sharm-el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort in Egypt, on July 15-16, 2009. The NAM was a revolutionary concept when it was launched by India, Egypt and Yugoslavia in 1961 with its first summit being held in Brioni, Yugoslavia, the same year.
The broad agenda before the NAM was to cool down the temperature between superpowers of the time, USA and USSR, so that a major crisis be averted. It served its role admirably and two superpowers averted clashes till the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. The 15th NAM Summit was attended by 118 countries and once again stressed upon importance of NAM in the current world scenario.
Amongst the issues discussed by NAM was Disarmament: Assembled leaders laid accent on working towards a world free of nuclear weapons. The issue of world without nuclear weapons was also discussed at the UN General Assembly and the G-20 Summit in September 2009.
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India was under tremendous pressure to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. As of now India has with stood the pressure and declined to endorse President Obama’s call for India to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The NAM leaders strongly endorsed the need for a just comprehensive peace treaty in the Middle- east, called for the establishment of an independent, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, Jerusalem as its capital and opposed the illegal settlement activities of Israel.
India also succeeded in sponsoring initiatives and calling for the early finalization of a comprehensive draft on international terrorism. Like in all other conferences, the NAM also emphasized the need for bringing about qualitative change in climate control so that we can witness the dawn of a new era and not terminate our existence abruptly on account of excessive pollution.