http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/956/fr1.htm
16 - 22 July 2009
Issue No. 956
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Clear calls from the NAM
The leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement called for guarantees of peace and
security, the end of economic injustice and improved bilateral ties at their
summit meeting held in Sharm El-Sheikh this week, reports Dina Ezzat
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Click to view caption
Cuban President Raul Castro, Mubarak and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
at the NAM Summit
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The 15th summit meeting of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM), held in the
Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh this week, saw the leaders of
the 118-member organisation meeting for two days of discussions during which
issues of particular interest to this grouping of mostly developing countries
were discussed, including threats to global peace and stability, an end to
global economic injustice and improved bilateral ties.
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan, Manmohan Singh and Syed Yousuf Raza
Gilani, are to meet today on the fringes of the meeting to discuss the tensions
that have existed between the neighbouring countries since the Mumbai attacks
last November, which were blamed by the Indian authorities on Pakistan.
However, this bilateral meeting is only one of many convening on the fringes of
the NAM summit. Many member countries of the organisation are divided by
significant political disagreements, and on the eve of this week's summit,
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and his Iranian counterpart
Menochaher Mutaki met briefly in what was being seen as a significant encounter
in view of the sometimes barely masked hostility between Egypt and Iran.
Egypt currently holds the rotating presidency of the NAM, taking over from the
outgoing president, Cuba. In 2012, Egypt will pass on the presidency of the
organisation to Iran, making it crucial that Egypt and Iran are able to
cooperate on important issues.
Yet, for many diplomats attending the summit, which opened yesterday and is
scheduled to close today, there may be few gains from the two days of meetings
of this organisation that is sometimes seen as a hangover from the decades
immediately following World War II.
However, if the NAM still has a function in today's world it may be that this
is related to its ability to bring leaders who might otherwise be at
loggerheads with each other together in an atmosphere of generally shared
values.
Coordinating positions among like-minded states within this body of nations is
a key objective of the regular summit meetings, and, as President Hosni Mubarak
noted in his opening speech at the meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh yesterday, it was
important that the member states of the NAM coordinate their policies on
serious challenges to peace and stability, including terrorism, the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the current financial crisis and
climate change.
It was only through such cooperation, Mubarak said, that developing countries
could have a real say in global decision-making on issues including world trade
and the global environment.
As Cuban leader Raoul Castro, also at the summit, noted, if the developing
countries fail to take advantage of the umbrella provided by the NAM and other
similar organisations, then they had better be prepared to pay the bill for
global decisions tailored to fit the interests of developed countries.
Despite the NAM's sometimes venerable aspect, the organisation remains relevant
in today's world, though perhaps in a different way to its heyday in the 1950s
and 60s.
This explains why membership of the organisation has steadily increased from
fewer than 39 member states in 1961 to over 100 today. Present members of the
NAM include 53 African countries, 38 countries from Asia and 28 from Latin
America. The secretary- general of the UN and the secretary-general of the Arab
League both attended this week's NAM summit meeting.
In a statement to the summit, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon appealed to
members of the NAM to patch up any differences that may exist among member
states, in order that they may be better equipped to deal with the present
international financial crisis and the dangers of climate change.
In his speech to the summit, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called
for greater cooperation among NAM member states to help remedy the kinds of
global injustice that have often forced developing nations to pay a heavy bill
for policies that serve the interests of developed countries.
The Palestinian cause was also a key issue in many of the statements made
during the opening session of the summit. Mubarak, Castro and other speakers
all stressed the need for a fair and comprehensive settlement of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-state solution.
Assistant Egyptian foreign minister Naela Gabr said that a special communiqué
on the Palestinian cause would be adopted by the summit meeting. The communiqué
would call on the international community to pursue a fair settlement to the
Israeli-Palestinian struggle that would grant the Palestinian people their
right to statehood, Gabr said.
An Egyptian proposal for closer cooperation among NAM member states on measures
to confront world terrorism in ways compatible with international law and the
holding of an international conference on the same issue was also expected to
be echoed in the final communiqué, said Ambassador Maged Abdel-Fattah, Egypt's
permanent representative to UN headquarters in New York.
An eventual Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration and the final communiqué of the summit
meeting would include demands from developing countries for a more balanced
international economic system that does not obstruct the right of nations to
pursue sustainable development, said Ambassador Hesham Badr, Egypt's permanent
representative to UN in Geneva.
According to Abul-Gheit, the Sharm El-Sheikh NAM summit meeting, coming only
days after the G8+ meeting of developing countries in Italy last week,
highlighted the demands of developing countries for peace and development.
"This is the message behind the title of the summit," Abul-Gheit said,
"solidarity for peace and development."
At the end of the NAM summit meeting today, leaders participating in the summit
are expected to renew their commitment to calls made by the countries of the
South: the end of colonialism in all its shapes and forms and a commitment
towards development.
Many diplomats attending the summit argued that despite its declining weight,
the NAM was likely to remain the voice of developing countries.
Whether or not their peoples feel the same way is another story, however.
"It's only a matter of a couple of days," said Sameh, a Sharm El-Sheikh taxi
driver interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly. Beyond that, he argued, "not much will
come out of this year's NAM summit."
Additional reporting by Samar El-Gamal and Mariam Fishere
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