GATHERING in the Indonesian city of Bandung, leaders of 29 countries in Asia and Africa, many newly independent, were keen to find ways to work closer together and make a statement of solidarity against colonialism.

The year was 1955.

The meeting subsequently led to the formation in 1961 of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, capital of the former Yugoslavia and now, of Serbia.

This is a grouping of countries that did not want to take sides in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

… However, Associate Professor Tan See Seng of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies told The Straits Times: “Its influence can be found, at least where international order in Asia is concerned, in the way Asian countries subsequently structured their relations with one another, and the conventions they developed in support of that.”