Baku, 5th July 2023
Mister Chairman,
Exellencies,
ladies and gentlemen,
dear friends,
I am here today with you as one of the few still living witnesses of the birth of the Nonalignment, if not the only one. I am here as somebody whose professional life was determined by the policy of nonalignment. I actively participated in most of the actions of our Movement since its formal beginning in Belgrade 1961.
My life with nonalignment opened for me new horizons. I got deeply involved in global policy, I got acquainted with treasures of nations of this world, with their history, cultures, and traditions.
Back in 1960. in New York, as a young Yugoslav diplomat I was involved in the preparations for the historic meeting Tito – Nasser – Nehru – Sukarno – Nkrumah. At that time, I was unaware that I was witnessing history in making, not to speak about the possibility that 62 years later I would be invited as guest to the meeting of the biggest political movement in history.
In these more than six decades the Movement played an important and significant role in creating the international scene and the geopolitical picture of the world. It managed to change the world. Yes, it did change the world! Never forget it and I appeal to you to do your utmost to revive the potential of the nonalignment.
Mark my words: to revive the potential of our Movement, because today – yes, NAM still exists formally, but on the international scene it once helped to change, voice of the Movement is not heard, it is not present, at least in a way the situation requires.
Forgive me for being so blunt, but – time is running out.
What NAM once did was enormous. What it must do now can and should be equally enormous, because we are faced with the ghosts of the past, we long thought were gone for good. Unfortunately, they were not!
If once we fought, and we did, for the authentic character of the nonalignment, we must do it again. We must master the problems arising from the high democratic values on one side and the undemocratic every day’s practice in many countries belonging to the Movement and in their mutual relations – on the other side.
If I may be a little pathetic: the Nonalignment movement must find its soul again!
And let me add: the fundamental political philosophy of the Movement remains as relevant, as it was 63 years ago, when ‘the five’ met in New York drawing the attention of the international community to the urgent need of addressing the biggest challenges to the world peace, the confrontation between two military-political blocks in the first place.
Is the situation today not almost the same? Aren’t we witnessing again the more and more deep division, if not along the same lines as in the past, but along lines that are even more dangerous? Aren’t we living in the sort of chaos that is preventing us from dealing with problems that are endangering the very existence of our civilization?
Let me mention them just briefly.
In the first place – climate change. The goal NAM must strive to achieve is, to put it simply, a lasting peace between mankind and Mother Earth. Meaning that it, and I might as well say: we must abandon the selfishness and greed and take full responsibility for the preservation of life and nature on our planet.
We must, so to say, reinvent the solidarity towards the weak and poor, we so tragically lacked in confronting the Covid 19 pandemic.
The Movement find a way to tackle the problem of global depts, because they threaten not only the economy of single states, but the self-sustainability of the world economy as such.
Utmost should be done to stop further detoriation od relations between the United States and People’s Republic of China. Their bilateral relations will in a significant grade determine the state of the world in this century. And their confrontation would have unimaginable consequences.
Last, but certainly not least, we are witnessing the collapse of the international security system, a direct threat to the whole of mankind. The war in Ukraine, lasting now more than 16 months, is at the same time an armed incursion on the territory of a sovereign state, as well as a proxy war between Russia and a alliance of western states led by America. And let me add that beside Russia’s responsibility for beginning the war, there is without any doubt the responsibility of the West for not even trying to find a new strategic approach to Russia after the end of the Cold war.
The West did promptly react by supplying Ukraine with arms and money, but this can not be a lasting solution, nor can it lead to such solution. It is time to open the doors for diplomacy, to open the perspective for peace, or at least for an armistice.
Those who are formulating the policy of the Western bloc obviously forgot what John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said: ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.’
In my view the Nonalignment Movement should be actively involved in efforts to promote peace through negotiations.
There will not be and there cannot be a winner in this war. But we can strive to reach a peace agreement which will not leave any side in the position of a loser.
Be it through accepting the legitimate wish of Russia to protect its own security, be it through the status of permanent neutrality, guaranteed by international institutions for Ukraine; be it through step by step withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and reviving in a way the almost forgotten Minsk 2 agreement; be it by creating some sort of a new Marshall plan, including Russia, for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine; be it – finally – by opening a new round of US-Russia negotiations aimed at reducing their nuclear arsenals.
These are, in my opinion, the necessary steps, the unavoidable steps. These are the foundations of a new world security system.
But now, right now, the urgent task for the international community and for diplomacy is – stopping the war. This is what mankind wants and expects, this is what the Nonalignment Movement should be involved in.
At the same time countries assembled in the Nonalignment movement should not forget problems arising from the fact that liberal capitalism has proven to be an obstacle on the way of finding adequate answers to challenges of modern times. Putting the interests of the capital above everything resulted in disastrous consequences.
Due attention should be paid to the regulatory role of the state and – let us never forget – the role of the United Nations, which needs profound reform, as to be the mirror of today’s world and not a world from many decades ago, this role should be reinforced.
If you allow me to put it like this: our civilization needs to be repaired to develop further in all fields. By saying this I must point out that the almost unthinkable development of technology puts us before an enormous task: of preventing and keeping humanistic idea of very existence of mankind.
In this context I must urgently point out the dangers originating from the uncontrolled development of AI, artificial intelligence. This is something we never dreamed of when our Movement started on its historic path, but this is certainly something we must deal with now. As soon as possible! Let us not allow the beginning of another potentially deadly race – race between artificial intelligences, between China and America!
And one more point, extremely important: the world we live in was never so interdependent as it is now and at the same time so deeply divided as it is now. The overall situation is dramatically dangerous.
What we must do is to further strengthen the principle of multilateralism in international relations, meaning that we should do our utmost to prevent a new bipolar, let not even mention unipolar world. The multipolar world is and remains the only chance for small countries, faced with the despotism of those big and mighty.
And let us never forget this: only the democratization of international relations can lead towards reforms, ensuring global peace and security.
Mister Chairman, Your Highnesses, excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen!
Allow me to conclude my remarks by paying once more my highest respect and admiration to those who participated in the founding conference of the Nonalignment Movement. And allow me to thank the current chairman of the Movement, the government of Azerbaijan, for organizing this important event.