Serbia is hosting a high-level meeting marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), bringing representatives of countries from the movement's historic core back to Belgrade, where its first summit was held in 1961.

The August 31-September 1 meeting is intended to commemorate the movement's founding and discuss the relevance of its principles, including sovereignty, territorial integrity, equality among states, respect for international law and peaceful coexistence, the Serbian government said.

Representatives of the movement's current coordinating troika - Azerbaijan, Uganda and Uzbekistan - are also attending, alongside senior officials from countries including Algeria, Mozambique and Tanzania. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has held meetings with several of the visiting delegations.

The gathering takes place as Serbia seeks to strengthen relations with countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East while pursuing a foreign policy that balances ties with the European Union, United States, Russia and China.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formally established at a 1961 conference in Belgrade, bringing together countries that sought to avoid alignment with either the United States or Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Its leading founders included Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indonesia's Sukarno and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah. Many of its members were newly independent states in Africa and Asia seeking to preserve their sovereignty after colonial rule.

The movement helped turn Yugoslavia, a relatively small European country, into a significant diplomatic player. It also generated extensive economic, educational and cultural links between Yugoslavia and countries across the ‘Third World’, or what we now call ‘emerging markets’ or the ‘Global South’.

Yugoslav companies won infrastructure contracts across Africa and the Middle East, while students from non-aligned countries studied in Yugoslavia. Some Yugoslav companies, including engineering group Energoprojekt, retain business links in countries where they operated during the Cold War.

Those relationships have provided Serbia with a diplomatic legacy it has sought to revive since the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Belgrade hosted a major gathering in 2021 to mark the 60th anniversary of the movement's founding, attended by delegations from more than 100 countries.

For Serbia, the legacy of Yugoslavia's non-aligned diplomacy also has a practical dimension. Belgrade has sought support among developing countries for its position on Kosovo, whose 2008 declaration of independence Serbia does not recognise.

Serbia is formally pursuing membership of the European Union but has maintained close political and economic relations with Russia and expanded cooperation with China, while also developing ties with the United States, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The revival of interest in non-alignment comes as countries in the Global South seek to avoid being drawn into competition between major powers, while geopolitical tensions have intensified between the West, Russia and China.

The Non-Aligned Movement itself has changed substantially since the Cold War and now includes 120 member states. Russia and China have observer status, despite the movement's original emphasis on avoiding alignment with major power blocs.

For Belgrade, the anniversary meeting offers an opportunity to draw on a diplomatic tradition that remains useful as Serbia seeks to preserve room for manoeuvre between competing geopolitical centres.