NAM Summit
PM flies to Tehran tomorrow
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave for Tehran tomorrow to attend the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit on August 30-31 where Iran will seek support from world leaders to take a stand against Western sanctions. As Iran takes over the three-year NAM presidency from Egypt, it intends to prove that the West, especially Washington has failed to isolate it from the rest of the world.
Sheikh Hasina will lead a 45-member delegation to the summit which will be the single largest gathering of world leaders in recent history.
More than 50 heads of state and government, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, and Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran since 1979.
Foreign ministry officials said Sheikh Hasina will avail the opportunity of the NAM platform to express her views on a number of global political and economic issues.
On the sidelines of the summit, Hasina will also hold a number of bilateral meetings with leaders of various countries, including Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Turkmenistan to discuss issues of mutual interest.
At the NAM Ministerial Committee on Palestine scheduled for today, Dhaka will make a policy statement. Bangladesh has been its member for the last three years and plays a leading role in support of the Palestinian issue.
At the summit, Bangladesh will highlight its position on a wide range of issues, including Syria, Palestine, UN reforms, peace-building, climate change, migration, development, global food security, and special economic and trade concession needs of the least developed countries (LDC).
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, who left for the summit yesterday, will participate in a two-day Ministerial Interactive General Debate on the theme “Lasting Peace through Joint Global Governance”.
Issues like regional crises, human rights, food and health security, solidarity of NAM, global peace as well as economic cooperation and development among the 120-member states will be raised at the discussion, officials said.
The summit will adopt “The Tehran Declaration” which may seriously oppose unilateral economic sanctions enacted by certain countries against the Non-Aligned nations.
According to the programme schedule, the Prime Minister will leave Dhaka tomorrow at 10:30am and return on September 1.
-With The Daily Star input
