1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (, , ) on 1–6 September 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia was the first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. A major contributing factor to the organization of the conference was the process of decolonization of a number of African countries in the 1960s. Some therefore called it the ″Third World's Yalta″ in reference to 1945 Yalta Conference. Twenty-five countries in total participated in Belgrade Conference, while 3 countries, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador, were observers. The preparatory meeting of Non-Aligned Countries  took place earlier that year in Cairo June 5–12, 1961. One of the issues was division of the newly independent countries over the Congo Crisis which led to a rift and creation of the conservative and anti-radical Brazzaville Group and radical nationalist Casablanca Group. All members of the Casablanca Group attended the conference, including Algeria, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco and the United Arab Republic, while none of the Brazzaville Group was present. The summit was followed by the 2nd Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cairo. The Conference. Vladimir Popović was the head of the Yugoslav State Committee  for the Preparation of the Conference. The conference brought together 25 independent states. In addition to them, there were three states that had observer status, eleven socialist parties, trade unions from Japan and four other organizations. Socio-economic differences between participants were great and from the beginning participating states often showed different interests. Yugoslavia attached special importance to Latin American countries participation. The participation of these countries, along with the representatives of Europe, should have given the conference the character of a gathering where all parts of the world are represented, and avoid reduction to Afro-Asian meeting as it  was case with some meetings before. President Tito only partially succeeded bringing together all parts of the world to the conference. From Latin America, only Cuba was a full participant, while Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador had observer status. The reason for that was the inability of these states to resist some pressure from the United States which wanted to preserve its role in the Western Hemisphere. The representatives of Yugoslavia were especially disappointed with Mexico's last minute cancelation. Of the European countries, only Cyprus and Yugoslavia as a host participated in the meeting. 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned