The first summit of NAM was held in Belgrade in _____.

January 1961

The correct answer is Option 1 - January 1961

The Cold War tended to divide the world into two rival alliances. It was in this context that non-alignment offered the newly decolonised countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America a third option—not to join either alliance. The roots of NAM went back to the friendship between three leaders — Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru, and Egypt’s leader Gamal Abdel Nasser — who held a meeting in 1956. Indonesia’s Sukarno and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah strongly supported them. These five leaders came to be known as the five founders of NAM. The first non-aligned summit was held in Belgrade in 1961. This was the culmination of at least three factors:

(i) cooperation among these five countries,
(ii) growing Cold War tensions and its widening arenas, and
(iii) the dramatic entry of many newly decolonised African countries into the international arena. By 1960, there were 16 new African members in the UN.

The first summit was attended by 25 member states. Over the years, the membership of NAM has expanded. The 17th NAM summit was held in Venezuela in 2016. It included 120 member states and 17 observer countries. The 18th was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

19th NAM Summit:
Recently the 19th Non-Alignment Summit was held in Kampala, Uganda in January 2024.
90 out of 120 member states participated in it.
The summit adopted the Kampala Declaration.
The External Affairs Minister (EAM) of India, Shri Jai Shankar led the Indian delegation at the 19th NAM Summit.