By R.Ravichandran
BAKU (AZERBAIJAN), Oct 22 (Bernama) — Senior Officials from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) began their two-day meeting here on Monday, deliberating on current developments in the international sphere and issues related to NAM member countries.
The Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting on October 23-24 will preced the 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the NAM that will be held here on Oct 25-26.
Among the issues at the SOM included the ongoing conflict in Syria, matters related to the South-South Cooperation and also climate change, a senior official from a member nation told Bernama International News Service at the sideline of the meeting.
The SOM, held at a leading hotel here, had two working groups – the Political Committee and the Economic and Social Committee.
The Political Committee meeting was chaired by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov and the Economic and Social Committee meeting was chaired by Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Elman Abdullayev.
NAM is currently made up of 120 member countries, 17 observer countries and 10 observer organisations.
Following the meeting on Tuesday, the senior officials are expected to present the draft to the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting for further discussions and actions.
At this Summit, the Republic of Azerbaijan will take over the chairmanship of the NAM for the next three years.
NAM, which had its first summit in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1961, was formed at the height of the Cold War as an independent path in international politics for those countries wishing to be free from the influence of superpowers which were led by the Soviet Union and the United States at that time, and not becoming pawns in their ideological rivalry.
The founding fathers of NAM are Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) and Sukarno (Indonesia).
The NAM has its basic concepts originating from the Asian-African Conference – also known as Bandung Conference – held in Indonesia in 1955, which was the cornerstone for the movement’s formation later, which, among others, fought for respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, recognition of the equality among all races and all nations and non-intervention or non-interference into the internal affairs of another country.
Malaysia hosted the 13th NAM Summit in 2003 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
— NNN-BERNAMA