1. When the Cold War ended, some people thought that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) would wither away. It has not. In fact, more countries are joining or becoming observers. There are now 118 member states. For a few countries, it is a way to lobby support against US and Israel. For most countries including Singapore, NAM expresses an ideal, of solidarity among the great majority of countries who are not permanent members of the UN Security Council or in the OECD club. Although mostly talk, there is in the solidarity a moral force.
2. Cuba is again in the chair after Malaysia. Cuba was last in the chair from 1979-1983. It was a different world then. For ASEAN at that time, opposing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia was top of our agenda. Our diplomats fought Cuba's tooth and nail, hammer and tongs. But we grew to respect each other. This time, we talk cooperation.
3. This is my second NAM meeting. As Minister of State for ForeignAffairs, I attended my first many years ago in 1989 in Belgrade. It was a strange experience. Tito had died. The President of Yugoslavia then was a Slovene (by rotation) who looked distinctly uncomfortable in the chair. All around the city, there were banners celebrating the 700th Anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. Kosovo - what was that, I wondered? I read up my guide book and learnt that, in that battle, the Serbs fought heroically but lost to the invading Turks. Milosevic in 1989 was determined that the Serbs should not lose control of Kosovo which was the birthplace of their national heroes. Within a few months, the Berlin Wall came down and Yugoslavia gradually dissolved into civil war as Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina struggled to become free. How much the world has changed!
4. Nothing is permanent in the affairs of men. Asia is on the move; the Middle East is in ferment; Latin America is at the crossroads (again) and Africa, sadly, is still floundering. All that keeps the NAM cauldron bubbling.
George Yeo
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