| Asian–African Conference Konferensi Asia–Afrika | |
|---|---|
 Plenary session during the Bandung Conference | |
| Host country |  Indonesia |
| Dates | 18 to 24 April 1955 |
| Cities | Bandung |
| Participants | 304 representatives |
| Chair | Ruslan Abdulgani Foreign Minister of Indonesia |
The first large-scaleAsian–African orAfro–Asian Conference (Indonesian:Konferensi Asia–Afrika), also known as theBandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–24 April 1955 inBandung,West Java,Indonesia.[1] The twenty-nine countries that participated represented a total population of 1.5 billion people, 54% of the world's population.[2] The conference was organized by Indonesia,Burma (Myanmar),India,Ceylon (Sri Lanka), andPakistan and was coordinated byRuslan Abdulgani, secretary general of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.
The conference's stated aims were to promoteAfro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to opposecolonialism orneocolonialism by any nation. The conference was a step towards the eventual creation of theNon-Aligned Movement (NAM) yet the two initiatives ran in parallel during the 1960s, even coming in confrontation with one another prior to the2nd Cairo NAM Conference in 1964.[3]
In 2005, on the 50th anniversary of the original conference, leaders from Asian and African countries met in Jakarta and Bandung to launch the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership (NAASP). They pledged to promote political, economic, and cultural cooperation between the two continents.[citation needed]
Indonesian PresidentSukarno and Indian Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru were key organizers in their quest to build a nonaligned movement that would win the support of the newly emerging nations of Asia and Africa. Nehru first got the idea at theAsian Relations Conference, held in India in March 1947, on the eve of India's independence. There was a second 19-nation conference regarding the status of Indonesia, held inNew Delhi, India, in January 1949. Although Nehru initially attached relatively little importance to Indonesia's calls to convene the Bandung Conference, he showed increasing interest during and after late 1954 due to his concern about American foreign policy as it applied to Asia, his belief that he could secure a guarantee of peaceful coexistence with China, and his desire to avoid embarrassing Indonesia.[4]Decolonization was underway and an increasing number of new nations in Africa or Asia were emerging with, for the first time, their own diplomatic corps and need to integrate into the international system.[citation needed]
ChairmanMao Zedong of theChinese Communist Party was also a key organizer, backed by his influential right-hand man,Premier and Foreign MinisterZhou Enlai. Mao believed that an anti-colonial nationalist and anti-imperialist agenda was underway in Africa and Asia, and he wanted to make China the leader of these forces.[5] In his efforts to present China as a model, Mao publicly maintained a friendly, conciliatory tone towards newly independent Asian nations,[6] while simultaneously denouncing the Western colonial empires.[7]
At the Colombo Powers conference in April 1954, Indonesia proposed a global conference. A planning group with the leaders of Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon met inBogor, West Java in late December 1954[8] and formally decided to hold the conference in April 1955. They had a series of goals in mind: to promote goodwill and cooperation among the new nations, to explore in advance their mutual interests, to examine social economic and cultural problems, to focus on problems of special interest to their peoples such as racism and colonialism, and to enhance the international visibility of Asia and Africa in world affairs.[9]
The Bandung Conference reflected what the organizers regarded as a reluctance by the Western powers to consult with them on decisions affecting Asia in a setting ofCold War tensions: their concern over tension between the People's Republic of China and the United States, their desire to lay firmer foundations for China's peace relations with themselves and the West, their opposition to colonialism (especiallyFrance's neocolonialism in North Africa and its colonial rule inAlgeria), and Indonesia's desire to promote its case in theWest New Guinea dispute with theNetherlands.[citation needed] One of Sukarno's primary goals with the conference was to build support for Indonesia's claim to West Papua and to prevent the Netherlands from transferring sovereignty of West Papua to indigenous Papuans.[10]
Sukarno portrayed himself as the leader of this group of states, which he later described as "NEFOS" (Newly Emerging Forces).[11]
On 4 December 1954, the United Nations announced that Indonesia had successfully gotten the issue of West New Guinea placed on the agenda of the 1955 General Assembly.[12][page needed] Plans for the Bandung conference were announced in December 1954.[13]
Major debate centered on the question of whetherSoviet policies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia should be censured along with Western colonialism. A memo was submitted by 'The Moslem Nations under Soviet Imperialism', accusing the Soviet authorities of massacres and mass deportations in Muslim regions, but it was never debated.[14] A consensus was reached in which "colonialism in all of its manifestations" was condemned, implicitly censuring the Soviet Union, as well as the West.[15] China played an important role in the conference and strengthened its relations with other Asian nations. Having survivedan assassination attempt on the way to the conference, the Chinese premier,Zhou Enlai, displayed a moderate and conciliatory attitude that tended to quiet fears of some anticommunist delegates concerning China's intentions.[who?]
Later in the conference, Zhou Enlai signed anagreement on dual nationality with Indonesian foreign ministerSunario. World observers closely watched Zhou. He downplayed revolutionary communism and strongly endorsed the right of all nations to choose their own economic and political systems, including even capitalism. His moderation and reasonableness made a very powerful impression for his own diplomatic reputation and for China.[who?] By contrast, Nehru was bitterly disappointed at the generally negative reception he received. Senior diplomats called him arrogant.[who?] Zhou said privately, "I have never met a more arrogant man than Mr. Nehru."[16][17][18][19]
China began voicingsupport for Palestine at Bandung, with Zhou stating, "[T]here was a parallel between the problems of Palestine and Formosa; neither could be solved peacefully unless intervention by outside forces was excluded; China was suffering from the same problem as the Arab countries."[20]: 61
A 10-point "declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation", calledDasasila Bandung (Bandung's Ten Principles, orBandung Spirit, orBandung Declaration; styled after Indonesia'sPancasila; orTen Principles of Peaceful Coexistence[21]), incorporating the principles of theUnited Nations Charter as well asFive Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was adopted unanimously as item G in the final communiqué of the conference:[22]
The final Communique of the Conference underscored the need for developing countries to loosen their economic dependence on the leading industrialised nations by providing technical assistance to one another through the exchange of experts and technical assistance for developmental projects, as well as the exchange of technological know-how and the establishment of regional training and research institutes.[citation needed]
For the US, the Conference accentuated a central dilemma of its Cold War policy; by currying favor with Third World nations by claiming opposition to colonialism, it risked alienating its colonialist European allies.[23] The US security establishment also feared that the Conference would expand China's regional power.[24] In January 1955, the US formed a "Working Group on the Afro-Asian Conference" that included theOperations Coordinating Board (OCB), theOffice of Intelligence Research (OIR), theDepartment of State, theDepartment of Defense, theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA), and theUnited States Information Agency (USIA).[25] The OIR and USIA followed a course of "Image Management" for the US, using overt and covert propaganda to portray the US as friendly and to warn participants of the Communist menace.[26]
The United States, at the urging of Secretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles, shunned the conference and was not officially represented. However, the administration issued a series of statements during the lead-up to the Conference. These suggested that the US would provide economic aid and attempted to reframe the issue of colonialism as a threat by China and theEastern Bloc.[27]
RepresentativeAdam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.) attended the conference, sponsored byEbony andJet magazines instead of the U.S. government.[27] Powell spoke at some length in favor of American foreign policy there which assisted the United States's standing with the Non-Aligned. When Powell returned to the United States, he urged PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower and Congress to oppose colonialism and pay attention to the priorities of emerging Third World nations.[28]
African American authorRichard Wright attended the conference[29] with funding from theCongress for Cultural Freedom. Wright spent about three weeks in Indonesia, devoting a week to attending the conference and the rest of his time to interacting with Indonesian artists and intellectuals in preparation to write several articles and a book on his trip to Indonesia and attendance at the conference. Wright's essays on the trip appeared in several Congress for Cultural Freedom magazines, and his book on the trip was published asThe Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference. Several of the artists and intellectuals with whom Wright interacted (includingMochtar Lubis,Asrul Sani,Sitor Situmorang andBeb Vuyk) continued discussing Wright's visit after he left Indonesia.[30][31][page needed] Wright extensively praised the conference.[29]
The conference was later followed by theAfro-Asian People's Solidarity Conference held in Cairo[32] in September 1957 and subsequently by theBelgrade Summit in 1961, which resulted in the formation of theNon-Aligned Movement.[33]
In the early 1960s, China sought to mobilize support of theArab countries for a second Bandung Conference, proposed to be held in Algiers.[34]: xxvi The effort failed as a result of events including the1965 Algerian coup d'état, theouster of Sukarno in Indonesia, the1966 Ghanaian coup d'état, and Egypt growing closer to the Soviet Union.[34]: xxvi
To mark the 50th anniversary of The Summit, Heads of State and Government of Asian-African countries attended a new Asian-African Summit from 20 to 24 April 2005 in Bandung andJakarta hosted by PresidentSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Attended byPrime Minister of Japan,Junichiro Koizumi;President of China,Hu Jintao;United Nations Secretary General,Kofi Annan;President of Pakistan,Pervez Musharraf;President of Afghanistan,Hamid Karzai;Prime Minister of Malaysia,Abdullah Ahmad Badawi;Sultan of Brunei,Hassanal Bolkiah andPresident of South Africa,Thabo Mbeki, some sessions of the new conference took place in Gedung Merdeka (Independence Building), the venue of the original conference.
Of the 106 nations invited to the historic summit, 89 were represented by their heads of state or government or ministers.[35] The Summit was attended by 54 Asian and 52 African countries.
The 2005 Asian African Summit yielded, inter-alia, the Declaration of the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership (NAASP),[36] the Joint Ministerial Statement on the NAASP Plan of Action, and the Joint Asian African Leaders' Statement on Tsunami, Earthquake and other Natural Disasters. The conclusion of aforementioned declaration of NAASP is the Nawasila (nine principles) supporting political, economic, and socio-cultural cooperation.
During the conference Egyptian PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser met with Zhou Enlai regarding Egypt obtaining arms from the Soviet Union.[34]: xxiv Zhou stated that China would intercede with the Soviet Union on this issue, and later in 1955, Egypt obtained Soviet arms via Czechoslovakia.[34]: xxiv This was a milestone of the Soviet Union's increased diplomatic presence in the Middle East.[34]: xxiv
On the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference and the 10th anniversary of the NAASP, a 3rd summit was held in Bandung and Jakarta from 21 to 25 April 2015, with the themeStrengthening South-South Cooperation to Promote World Peace and Prosperity. Hosted by PresidentJoko Widodo of Indonesia, delegates from 109 Asian and African countries, 16 observer countries, and 25 international organizations participated,[35] includingPrime Minister of Japan,Shinzo Abe;President of China,Xi Jinping;Prime Minister of Singapore,Lee Hsien Loong;King Abdullah II of Jordan;Prime Minister of Malaysia,Najib Tun Razak;President of Myanmar,Thein Sein;KingMswati III of Swaziland andPrime Minister of Nepal,Sushil Koirala.[37][38]
On the 70th anniversary of the first African-Asian (Bandung) conference, Bharat Summit was organized by theTelangana government from April 24–26, 2025 in Hyderabad, India. Theme of the summit was ‘Delivering Global Justice’.[39]
Kingdom of Afghanistan
Union of Burma
Kingdom of Cambodia
Dominion of Ceylon
People's Republic of China1
Cyprus2
Republic of Egypt
Ethiopian Empire
Gold Coast
Republic of IndiaRepublic of Indonesia
Imperial State of Iran
Kingdom of Iraq
Japan
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Kingdom of Laos
Lebanese Republic
Liberia
Kingdom of Libya
Kingdom of Nepal
Dominion of Pakistan
Republic of the Philippines
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Syrian Republic
Sudan3
Kingdom of Thailand
Republic of Turkey
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North)
State of Vietnam (South)
Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen1 Partially recognized state. TheRepublic of China wasinternationally recognized as the legitimate government of China by most of the international community at the time.
2 A pre-independent colonial Cyprus was represented by [the] eventualfirst president,Makarios III.[40]
3 Pre-independenceAnglo-Egyptian Sudan was represented byChief MinisterIsmail al-Azhari and used a provisionalflag.
Some nations were given "observer status". Such was the case ofBrazil, who sent Ambassador Bezerra de Menezes.[41][42]
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