page_title: Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Српски (ћирилица)‎: Посета премијера Индије Џавахарлала Нехруа Југославији: опроштајна вечера у Белој вили (Београд) Инвентарски број: 1955_46_144
context_page_description: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia was the host of the First Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in early September 1961. City hosted the Ninth Summit as well in September of 1989.
  Non-alignment and active participation in the movement was the corner-stone of the Cold War period foreign policy and ideology of the Yugoslav federation. As the only European socialist state beyond the Eastern Bloc and a country economically linked to Western Europe Yugoslavia championed balancing and cautious equidistance towards United States, Soviet Union and China in which Non-alignment was perceived as a collective guarantee of country's political independence. In addition Non-alignment opened further maneuver space in status quo Cold War Europe compared to neutral countries whose foreign policy was often limited by great powers, most notably in the case of Finlandization.
context_section_description: During the World War II Yugoslav Partisans liberated their country with only minimal help from the Soviet Red Army and western allies which led the new communist authorities to belief that contrary to other countries in Eastern Europe they are entitled to follow a more independent socialist course. Contrary to other communist parties in the region, Communist Party of Yugoslavia was able to rely on local army, police and relatively high legitimacy among diverse Yugoslav demographic groups. Yugoslavia did not perceive itself as a client but as a partner of the USSR and in many respect pursued its own domestic and foreign policy which sometimes was more assertive than Moscow's policy. This was the case in over the issue of Free Territory of Trieste, Balkan Federation, Greek Civil War, Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia and infiltration and relations with the Albanian National Liberation Movement. Belgrade's independent policies raised tensions with Moscow and escalated in 1948 Tito–Stalin split Yugoslavia when found itself isolated from the rest of the Eastern Bloc countries and in need to redefine its foreign policy.
  The country initially oriented itself towards the Western Bloc and signed the 1953 Balkan Pact with NATO member states of Kingdom of Greece and Turkey. After the death of Stalin, Yugoslav relations with the USSR improved with the country's verbal support for the Soviet intervention in Hungary (contrary to the 1968 one in Czechoslovakia). 1955 Belgrade declaration decreased reliance on the 1953 Balkan Pact which subsequently discontinued its activities. As the country still wanted to preserve its newly gained independence it developed relations with European neutral countries such as Finland. It also avoided joining the Warsaw Pact established in May 1955. Yet in order to avoid isolation in deeply divided Europe, Yugoslavia looked for new allies among former colonies and mandate territories. Yugoslavia supported Egypt during the Suez Crisis, a country which became one of the founding members of the Non-aligned movement. Yugoslavia developed its relations with India, another founding member, from the time of their concurrent mandate at the UN Security Council from the end of 1949 onward.
  A year later, during the 1950 United Nations General Assembly session prominent Yugoslav politician and at the time Minister of Foreign Affairs Edvard Kardelj stated that "Yugoslavia cannot accept that mankind must choose between domination by one or other power". On 22 December 1954 meeting in New Delhi Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito signed a joint statement stipulating that "the policy of non-alignment adopted and pursued by their respective countries is not ‘neutrality’ or ‘neutralism’ and therefore passivity, as sometimes alleged, but is a positive, active and constructive policy seeking to lead to collective peace".
caption: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Yugoslavia in 1955
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