Bandung's New Global Agenda

“Building Sovereignty and Countering Hegemony” was the theme of the Bandung Spirit Conference held in Jakarta and Bandung on 27–31 October 2015 to observe the 60th Anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Conference of Asian and African countries.¹ This included scholars and activists from 25 countries from all the continents of the world, though the vast majority were from Asia and Africa. In April 2015, the heads of states and governments had already met and adopted a number of significant declarations to advance the Bandung agenda in the context of the 21st century challenges.

The 41-point Bandung Message 2015 for strengthening South–South cooperation for promoting world peace and security was a major declaration reaffirming the 10 principles (dasa-shila) of 1955 and the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership (NAASP) of 2005, while charting concrete programmes of action on contemporary issues, such as climate change. But this conference convened under the initiative of an international academic group took up many issues going beyond diplomatic confines and formulated a research and policy agenda to address some of the critical political, cultural, economic and environmental challenges confronting the contemporary world.