Sharm el Sheikh, July 15: Cuban President Raul Castro today handed over the baton of Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at its 15th Summit which began in the backdrop of global economic crisis in this resort town on Sinai Peninsula.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is scheduled to address the NAM plenary later in the day, is expected to raise the issue of terrorism, climate change, sustainable development, food security and energy security.
India wants the 118-strong bloc of developing nations to regain its ”moral high ground” to address issues affecting them in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.
India, which pitched for reform of the global financial institutions like IMF and World Bank at the rich nations’ G-8 Summit in Italy last week, will try to get it endorsed by the 15th NAM Summit. The country also wants to get NAM’s endorsement for its 1996 convention on terrorism to lend it greater weight at the United Nations General Assembly scheduled to meet in September.
Ahead of the Summit, Dr Singh said, ”India will play its part in helping NAM to regain its moral high ground to address issues which are of direct concern and relevance to developing countries.” New Delhi thinks that NAM has ”continuing relevance” as the principles it seeks can be applied to address the current challenges being faced by the developing countries in the wake of the economic crisis which has hit them hard.
The Prime Minister said non-alignment has been the bedrock of India’s foreign policy since it was enunciated by late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
”Non-alignment remains an article of faith for us,” he said, adding in the post-Cold War era, when the world was no longer divided into two military blocs, the NAM has a ”renewed role” to play in the emerging world order.
Issues of climate change, sustainable development, food security and energy security are also expected to figure at the Summit being hosted by Egypt for the second time since it was launched in the fifties. It hosted NAM earlier in 1964.
For the first time, there will be an exclusive ”First Ladies’ Summit” that will be addressed by the Prime Minister’s wife Gursharan Kaur.
The ”NAM First Ladies’ Summit” will have the theme ‘Women in Crisis Management — Perspectives and Challenges, Best Practices and Lessons Learned’.
—-Agencies