April 1955
On the Way to the 1955 Bandung Conference
room Myanmar
people U Nu Pandit Nehru U Ba U President Nasser Pham Van Dong Sardar Muhammad Naim Chou Enlai Chen Yi
The April 1955 Bandung meetings were a testament to Burma's then dynamic international diplomacy. They were also a testament to Mingaladon airport's position as an international aviation hub - everyone had to stop in Rangoon anyway to travel to Indonesia. Many of the leaders attending Bandung stopped in Rangoon and were treated to dinner at Government House by President Dr Ba U.
The Bandung Conference was a meeting of 29 Asian and African nations held in Bandung, Indonesia. Its aim was to promote cooperation among the newly independent countries of the world and to resist being drawn into United States or Soviet global designs. U Thant was the energetic secretary of the Bandung Conference. That Burma was held in high esteem internationally in the 1950s is a little hard to image these days. Even harder to imagine is that Burma was active on the world stage; promoting its views, engaging in international politics through the United Nations, sending soldiers on UN peacekeeping missions overseas, and trying to play the part of a good global citizen.
At Government House, from left to right: North Vietnamese Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister) Pham Van Dong; Afghan Foreign Minister HH Sardar Muhammad Naim; Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai; Burma’s President Dr Ba U; Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru; Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser; Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi; and Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu. The next day, which was during Thingyan (Burmese new year) celebrations, Prime Minister U Nu persuaded Nasser and Nehru to put on Burmese dress and join in the festivities – they are pictured here walking down Merchant Street in Rangoon.