Foreign Minister leaves for NAM meeting
Accra, July 13, Ghanadot/GNA –
Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Regional Integration, left Accra on Sunday for Sharm-El-Sheik,
Egypt, to attend the Interactive Ministerial Debate of the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
The Debate precedes the 15th Summit of NAM scheduled for
July 15-16, at the same venue.
A statement released by Ministry on Monday said the
interactive debate, which is being held on the theme:
“International Solidarity for Peace and Development and
Current Economic and Financial Crisis”, would focus on peace
and security and promoting socio-economic development, two
main challenges confronting the NAM at the present time.
It said the session will examine avenues for establishing
durable conditions for peace, security and stability among
member states of the Movement, while exploring at the same
time, opportunities to ameliorate the impact of the recent
global economic crisis on developing countries.
The NAM, which comprises 118 countries from the developing
world, traces its origins to the Cold War era of the 1960s
and 1970s when a group of like-minded countries, including
Ghana, India, Indonesia, Egypt and the then Yugoslavia,
formed the nucleus of a Movement to chart a course of
positive neutrality in international affairs, such as the
right to take principled positions on international issues
without favouring either of the existing super power blocs.
The statement said from its inception at the Afro-Asian
Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955, the
NAM established itself as a moral force in international
politics and endeavoured to entrench in the international
system the ideal that international disputes should be
resolved by peaceful means and not by military might.
It stated that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of
communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted the
Movement with the need to reconfigure its mission to remain
relevant in a fast-changing world embracing globalization.
The focus of the NAM has accordingly shifted away from
essentially political issues to the advocacy of solutions to
global economic and related issues, adding that in the
process, the Movement has identified economic
under-development, poverty and social injustices as growing
threats to international peace and security.
The statement said in addressing the theme of the debate,
the NAM would be seeking viable options that would enable
its members to become more resilient in the prevailing
international system and also identify ways of strengthening
co-operation within the Movement to realize these
objectives.
President John Evans Atta Mills will attend the Summit.
GNA
