One outcome of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union was that many Third World countries joined regional blocs to avoid pressure by the world’s two superpowers.

The period that followed the end of World War II has been characterized by East-West competition, tension, and conflict fueled by perceptions of hostile intentions between the world’s two main alliances. It was under such circumstances that an Afro-Asian movement was born following calls by the leaders of India (Nehru), Egypt (Nasser), and Indonesia (Sukarno). The first summit conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, the cluster of nations that attempted to form a Third World force through a policy of nonalignment with the United States and Soviet Union, was held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955 and attended by 29 mainly developing nations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Bandung conference’s objective was the creation of a movement with a common approach toward world affairs that distances itself from the polarizing policies of the two superpowers and that works for the establishment of a world order where the principles of independence, peace, justice and equality prevail. The Bandung principles served as the intellectual foundation of the nonaligned movement officially launched in the 1961 Belgrade summit.

Both NAM and the Afro-Asian bloc set up with the objective of promoting economic and cultural cooperation as well as resisting colonialism were met with fierce opposition from the rich North. The North waged a relentless war against the infant movement considering that any success achieved by this bloc being against its interests. It was from such perception that the North sought to frustrate and eventually kill any attempt to develop and strengthen the movement.

By the beginning of the 1990s NAM has already been weakened and the idea of a strong Afro-Asian movement started to whither following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some countries regarded the movement was no longer a necessity with Cold War coming to an end and the demise of one of its two blocs.

Such a perception proved wrong because the rich North substituted the Cold War with a unilateral hot war, one that is declared and launched by one party that happened to be the sole superpower in the world representing the interests of the North at the expense of the poor South. The new reality forced the Afro-Asian countries to work for the revival of the Afro-Asian bloc in a new shape and form.

It was from here that the Asian-African Sub-Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC) came into being. The start was the ministerial working group meeting, held in Durban, South Africa, in March 2004. The foreign ministers of South Africa and Indonesia co-chaired the meeting, which was attended by delegates from 19 countries and representatives from 10 subregional and international organizations.

Inspired by the Spirit of Bandung of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference, the two-day conference had as its theme a new strategic partnership between Asia and Africa and considered ways and means by which the peoples of the two continents could achieve full economic, cultural, social and political cooperation, and address global challenges facing both continents.

Just recently, Jakarta hosted a NAM conference that drew Asian and African leaders from almost 100 countries representing two thirds of the world’s population who endorsed a strategic partnership aimed at breathing new life into a half-century alliance. The conference stressed the need to form a united front to close the gap between the developed world and the developing/poor countries and combat poverty, disease and exploitation. It emphasized the importance of multilateral approach to international relations and the need for countries to strictly abide by the principles of international law, underlined the importance of dialogue among civilizations to promote a culture of peace, tolerance and respect.

This new partnership focuses on three areas — political solidarity, economic cooperation and social relations. The success of this large regional gathering requires double efforts from its member countries who by now must have sensed the dangers posed by a globalization drive led by the West that threatens to destroy the very foundation on which the two continents stand. For AASROC to succeed, its members must unite and commit themselves to mutual cooperation and support to thwart attempts by the rich North to undermine their efforts at unity and cooperation.