CONEFO

The Conference of the New Emerging Forces (CONEFO) was an intergovernmental organization that existed from 1965 to 1966. CONEFO was the idea of President Sukarno of Indonesia, which he put forward in a speech at the UN General Assembly on 30 September 1960 entitled "To Build the World a New" to reform the UN and in early 1965 this idea evolved into creating a new bloc ^[1] of "emerging countries" that would be an alternative power centre to the United Nations and to the "old-established forces" — a category in which Sukarno included both the United States and the Soviet Union.^[2] It was intended to build on the legacy of the 1955 Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement, by asserting the interests of the Third World and a neutral posture towards the Cold War.

Conference of the New Emerging Forces Konferensi Negara-Negara Berkembang (Indonesian)
Headquarters	Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jakarta, Indonesia
Type	Intergovernmental organization
Establishment
• Established	7 January 1965 (60 years ago) (1965-01-07)
• Dissolved	11 August 1966 (59 years ago) (1966-08-11)

CONEFO was intended as an "International NASAKOM," an internationalization of Sukarno's united front policy inside Indonesia that balanced nationalist, religious, and communist forces.^[3] Surachman, leader of Sukarno's PNI, articulated CONEFO's ultimate aims: "Concerning the Conefo proposal of Bung Karno, its success will mean the collapse of the United Nations, and the formation of a new United Nations cleansed of imperialism and its puppets."^[3] The PKI leader D.N. Aidit promoted CONEFO in Romania and the Soviet Union.^[3]

CONEFO was officially established on 7 January 1965, after Sukarno's government objected to Malaysia becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, at a time of the low-level Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation between the two countries. An angry Sukarno took Indonesia out of the UN (the only country to have done so) and formed a rival world organization, having taken similar steps when he created the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) as an alternative to the Olympic Games in 1963.^[4] Indonesia constructed a new building complex in Jakarta to host CONEFO with the financial aid of the People's Republic of China.^[5]

Western powers worried about the threat of CONEFO. U.S. diplomats worried that "an alternate UN is [Sukarno's] ultimate goal" and opined: "Fantastic and extravagant as this scheme may seem from a Westerner’s point of view, it reflects the dead seriousness and the relentless drive of Sukarno . . . in his personal war against imperialism."^[3] Robert J. Martens, former American diplomat in Jakarta, summarized CONEFO decades later: "For the first time there was going to be a big international conference of New Emerging Forces, and facilities were to be built in Jakarta for this purpose... this kind of rival UN would be formed, based on the East Asian communists and their allies. There were to be other groups in it — a kind of international version of the national front tactic. At a lower plane than the communist core you could have all the Third World nations..." Fears of CONEFO remain an overlooked factor explaining US support for regime change in Indonesia.^[3]

CONEFO never met before it was dissolved on 11 August 1966 by General Suharto after ousting Sukarno from power. Indonesia rejoined the United Nations and the CONEFO complex, now called the MPR/DPR/DPD building, became the seat of the People's Consultative Assembly.^[4]