Mahama calls for a renewed, action-oriented Non-Aligned Movement

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama wants the Non-Aligned Movement to move beyond its large membership and show what it can achieve together. Addressing the movement’s first Conference of Heads of State and Government in Belgrade on September 1, 2026, he called for a renewal of its founding spirit and a stronger focus on practical results.

Mahama recalled the words of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, at the movement’s founding conference in 1961. Sixty-five years later, he said, the call for non-aligned countries to play an active role in resolving global challenges remains relevant. NAM’s strength, he argued, should be measured by its ability to act on issues affecting its members and the wider world, not simply by the number of countries it represents.

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We must strengthen consultation and coordination among member states, particularly within the United Nations and other multilateral institutions where our interests converge.

The president urged closer consultation and coordination among member states, particularly at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions where their interests converge. He said NAM summits and ministerial meetings should concentrate more sharply on issues where the movement can make a meaningful impact.

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We cannot accept a global order in which countries of the Global South remain exporters of raw materials and importers of finished goods.

Mahama pointed to Ghana’s recent diplomatic effort over the transatlantic slave trade as evidence of what collective action can deliver. The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/80/250 on March 23, 2026, in a measure led by Ghana and supported by the African Union. The resolution recognized the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized system of chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. It passed with 123 votes in favor, and Mahama thanked NAM members for supporting it.

He also linked political independence to economic strength. Countries in the Global South, he said, need greater control over their natural resources and should not remain exporters of raw materials while importing finished goods. He called for joint action on climate change, citing fires in Southern Europe, drought and desertification in Africa, and floods in parts of Asia. Mahama reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to multilateralism and to giving the Global South a stronger voice, ending with a call to work with “principle, purpose and confidence.”

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principle, purpose and confidence