ABSTRACT
Our first conference, in 1961, was held when the world was still divided into two fairly clear and opposing power blocs. Therefore, just by the fact of meeting and asserting the independence of either bloc, the member states of that conference were taking an important political action, it was an important new international development, which the big powers could not ignore. The conference was saying, in fact, that a third force existed in the world, a group of sovereign states which insisted upon making their own judgments on world issues, in accordance with their own aspirations, needs, and circumstances. But in economic matters, non-aligned states, as a group, can help themselves. The conference members did not claim to have great armed forces, and their meeting did not mark any change in the military 'balance of power'. Conference members made clear that they were not going to be willing participants in the Cold War struggle.
