Egypt was one of the founding members of theNon-Aligned Movement (NAM). Thepreparatory meeting for theFirst NAM Conference inBelgrade was held inCairo between 5 and 12 June 1961.[1] The first NAM conference was cosponsored betweenPresident of EgyptGamal Abdel Nasser andPresident of YugoslaviaJosip Broz Tito who sent joint letter to other leaders during their bilateral meeting in Egypt.[2] Cairo hosted theSecond Conference in October 1964 attended by forty-seven countries while EgyptianRed Sea resortSharm el-Sheikh hosted the Fifteenth Conference in 2009.[1] At the time of the Sharm el-Sheikh Conference 118 countries participated in the activities of the movement with some other countries having the observer status.[3] 55 heads of state attended the 2009 conference.[4] Official Egyptian state institutions view the movement as the broadest and the most important framework fordeveloping countries to coordinate their stances on issues on the agenda of theUnited Nations and to act together againstunilateral policies.[5]
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President Gamal Abdel Nasser, together with Josip Broz Tito ofYugoslavia,Jawaharlal Nehru ofIndia,Kwame Nkrumah ofGhana andSukarno ofIndonesia played the leading role in the early days of the movement.[6] Following theEgyptian revolution of 1952 and president Nasser'scharismatic authority in otherArab countries other countries in the Arab world followed Egyptian lead in joining the Non-Aligned Movement.[7]
After theCamp David Accords some Arab countries andCuba strongly criticized Egypt withIraqi representatives calling for suspension of Egypt's membership in the NAM.[8] This initiative was opposed by India and Yugoslavia as a matter of principle with Yugoslavia underlining its dissatisfaction with Egyptian failure to ensure earlier Arab common stance for the Camp David negotiations.[8]
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