LONDON—The 55-year-old Non-Aligned Movement, a once-powerful bloc of independent nations, is dying and nobody is sending flowers. Interest has hit a new low with just eight heads of states showing up at Venezuela’s Margarita Island for this year’s summit. The previous summit, held in Iran in 2012, was attended by 35 heads of state from the 120-nation bloc.
The rump group appearing in Venezuela included Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, and Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas along with heads of state of Ecuador and Bolivia, regional allies of Venezuela. The most notable absence was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose august predecessor Jawaharlal Nehru was the leading light of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The summit was a lackluster affair with less than half of the delegations attending, partly due to the domestic political troubles of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The country is on a downward spiral economically, with inflation in double digits and chronic shortages of food and other basic supplies, and growing demands for a referendum on removing Maduro from office before his term ends in 2019.
