Josip Broz Tito

Statement to Radio Belgrade on the

Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung

Date: April 27, 1955

Source: Tito: Selected Speeches and Articles, 1941-1961 pp. 175-176; originally published in Book X, p. 757-152.

Published: Naprijed, 1963

Transciption/HTML Markup: Mike B. for MIA, 2009

Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

QUESTION: The public here has followed the work of the Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung with exceptional interest. This interest is quite natural, because the principal theme at Bandung was peace and democratic co-operation among nations. For this reason, Comrade President, now that the Afro-Asian Conference is over and its results have been made known, Radio Belgrade is asking you to give us an answer to this question: How do you appraise the work and decisions of the first Afro-Asian Conference and what, in your view, is its contribution to the stabilisation of peace in the world?

ANSWER: I must admit that the results of the first Afro-Asian Conference have come as a pleasant surprise to me. For, although I expected that the Conference would be of enormous importance, I did not anticipate that so many problems would be dealt with and that in the majority of cases agreement would be reached.

The number of Asian and African countries which took part in the Conference and the tremendous interest in the Conference prevailing among Asian and African countries show that matters have reached an historical turning-point, in that the people of the two continents are determined to decide their own future for themselves, as far as this is possible. It goes without saying that the results of the Conference can only inspire all friends of peace and international co-operation with fresh hope and confidence that the front of peace in the world today constitutes a powerful factor in the struggle to avoid another war and achieve international co-operation.

We, Yugoslavs, are particularly delighted with these results, for the conception which prevailed at the Conference is completely in harmony with our conceptions, both in respect of international co-operation and the strengthening of peace and also in respect of the right of Asian and African countries to settle their own problems.