The last time dozens of leaders of non-aligned countries met for a summit in Havana in 2006, George W Bush was the President of the United States, violence levels in Iraq were still near their peak and Washington was also making threatening noises about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

There was no way that summit could escape its fate of ending up as a forum for America-bashing, especially with such rabid anti-US leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s Raul Castro and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holding centrestage.

Three years on, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), famously described as a relic of the Cold War, is desperately seeking to reinvent itself and stay alive. And two recent, history-making events have pushed it to the brink: the rise of Barack Obama as the president of the sole superpower and his quest for a new multipolar world order, and the global financial crisis which has hit rich and poor nations hard.

So when the 15th NAM summit opened in this Egyptian Red Sea resort on Wednesday, there was a new subtext in the language of the prominent leaders of the 118-country grouping and a quest for ideas rather than ideology.

Leader after leader stressed on the need for joining forces to combat the economic slowdown and how the crisis that originated in the rich countries could end up hurting the poor — who make the bulk of NAM — more.

Ironically, the ground was laid by Castro himself as the outgoing chairperson of NAM. Castro, who in April offered to discuss “everything” with the United States to improve ties after Obama eased a nearly five-decade trade embargo against Havana, said “the developing countries were the most affected by the financial crisis”.

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