*On this date in 1955, the Bandung Conference was held. This was the first large-scale Asian African or Afro Asian Conference ever held. The Bandung Conference was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place in Bandung, Indonesia. The twenty-nine countries that participated represented a population of 1.5 billion, 54% of the world's population.
The conference was organized by Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and India. The secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia coordinated it. The conference's stated aims were to promote Afro Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism or neocolonialism by any nation. The conference was an important step toward the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. India and China sought to claim the leadership of the emerging Asian African nations; Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai was the political personality that most impressed delegates, along with the host of the conference, Indonesian President Sukarno.
In 2005, on the 50th anniversary of the original conference, leaders from Asian and African countries met in Jakarta and Bandung to launch the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership (NAASP). They pledged to promote political, economic, and cultural cooperation between the two continents.
