The 19th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held on 19th and 20th January 2024, at Kampala, Uganda. The theme of the Summit was “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence”. Uganda took over as the Chair of NAM from Azerbaijan. Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, who will chair NAM until 2027, received the instruments of the office from Jeyhun Aziz oglu Bayramov, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Azerbaijan, on behalf of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who held the NAM Chair previously.
Yoweri Museveni stressed that the NAM was founded to uphold multilateralism in the international order, Musaveni remarked that the emergence of the NAM was a necessary antidote to the irrational polarization of the world of that time between the Capitalist Western countries and the Communist, mainly Eastern countries. Museveni said that NAM will continue its struggle against the unilateralism. “Our stand is that the world should concentrate on the common human problems – prosperity through trade, the advance of science and technology to deal with human problems, the environment, crime, and terrorism. The future is bright if we act right,” Museveni remarked.
Uganda Foreign Minister JeJe Odongo stated that Uganda’s Chairmanship will be anchored on a vision of ‘A stronger and United NAM that Contributes to a Better World for All’ and will focus on international peace and security; the fight against terrorism; humanitarian crises; human trafficking and drug smuggling; and Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
One of the important outcomes of the 19th NAM Summit was the adoption of the Kampala Declaration. The Kampala Declaration is guided by the principles and objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement, articulated in Bandung (1955) and Belgrade (1961), as well as the Declaration on the Purposes and Principles and the role of the Non-Aligned Movement in the present international juncture, adopted at the 14th NAM Summit in Havana, Cuba, on 16th September, 2006.
The Kampala Declaration reaffirmed NAM’s strong desire and commitment to upholding the principles of sovereignty and sovereign equality of States, territorial integrity, mutual respect, non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, and the peaceful settlement of disputes, and called for states to refrain from any acts of infringement on the sovereignty of other states.
The Declaration stressed the importance of strengthening multilateralism and comprehensive reform of the multilateral global governance architecture, including the United Nations and the international financial architecture, international financial institutions, and multilateral development banks, to make them fit for purpose, democratic, equitable, representative and responsive to the current global realities and the needs and aspirations of the Global South.
The Kampala Declaration stressed that NAM would make efforts to promote respect for the United Nations (UN) Charter and International Law, especially the principles of sovereignty, sovereign equality, territorial integrity, non-interference and peaceful settlement of disputes. The Kampala Declaration stressed that NAM will continue to strengthen the UN as the primary multilateral organization, providing it with substantive capacity to fully and effectively meet the purposes and principles enshrined in its Charter, and consolidating its democratic and inter-governmental character, in particular, through the revitalization of the General Assembly and strengthening its authority, as the democratic, inclusive, equitable and representative body of the Organization, as well as expediting reform of the United Nations Security Council, in a comprehensive and integrated manner, in order to make the Security Council a more democratic, transparent and representative organ of the United Nations.
The Kampala Declaration also called for strengthening South-South, North-South and triangular cooperation, to further promote, preserve and reform multilateralism, and to fully respect principles of international law and internationally agreed principles, with a view to enhancing cooperation in addressing threats and challenges facing developing countries in advancing economic development and social progress.
