Where was the first official summit of the Non-Aligned movement held?

Correct — C. The first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement met at Belgrade in September 1961, and Belgrade was then the capital of Yugoslavia — option (c).

It was convened by the leaders usually named as NAM's founders: Tito of Yugoslavia, Nehru of India, Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Nkrumah of Ghana.

Note what the options ask for. They list countries, not cities, so the answer is Yugoslavia even though the fact you have memorised is probably Belgrade.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  India — India hosted a NAM summit later, the seventh, at New Delhi in 1983, and Nehru was a founder — but the first summit was not held on Indian soil.
• (b)
  Egypt — Egypt gave NAM its founder Nasser and hosted the second summit, at Cairo in 1964. That makes it the standard trap on an item asking for the first.
• (d)
  New York — New York is the seat of the United Nations, not a NAM venue. Non-alignment was organised outside the two Cold War blocs rather than inside a UN body.

Non-alignment was the refusal of newly independent states to join either Cold War bloc while still engaging both.

Its groundwork was laid at the Bandung Conference of 1955 in Indonesia, whose Afro-Asian gathering produced the principles that NAM later adopted, and by the Panchsheel agreement between India and China.

The movement was formalised at Belgrade in 1961 and has met in summits since, hosted in rotation by member states.

Key facts

• The first NAM summit was held at Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.
• The Bandung Conference of 1955 in Indonesia laid the groundwork for non-alignment.
• Nehru, Tito and Nasser are the three leaders most often named as NAM's founders.
• India hosted the seventh NAM summit at New Delhi in 1983.

Common traps

• Answering with the city, Belgrade, when the options are countries.
• Treating Bandung 1955 as the first NAM summit, when it was the Afro-Asian Conference that preceded NAM.

No directly related past PYQ was found.