NAM leaders discuss global financial crisis, terrorism

V Mohan Narayan
Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), Jul 15 (PTI) Leaders from NAM
countries, including India, met here Wednesday to hammer out a
strategy to tackle the world financial crisis and sought
international solidarity to fight terrorism and enhance peace
and development.

Opening the two-day 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Summit of the 118 developing nations at this Egyptian Red Sea
resort city, Cuban President Raul Castro said the grouping
believes that all countries in the world should search for
effective and justified measures to tackle the current
financial crisis.
NAM should promote the establishment of a new
international economic order of equality and sustainable
development, said Castro, the outgoing Chairman of the
grouping.
In his address, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who
took over the NAM Chairmanship from Castro Wednesday for a
three-year term, sought serious efforts and international
solidarity to enhance world peace and development.
Mubarak spoke about the international financial system
and the need to deal with on war-footing challenges like
climate change, food security, peace and security,
disarmament, human rights and rule of law.
The Summit aims at evolving a new international order
to effectively face contemporary world challenges.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani
counterpart Yousuf Raza Galani are among the NAM heads of
state or government participating in the meet, billed as the
largest gathering of nations outside the UN General Assembly.
The summit is likely to be overshadowed by talks
between Singh and Gilani Thursday against the backdrop of
India seeking "visible response" and undertaking from Pakistan
on bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to
justice.
At the inaugural session, Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi
said there was a need to re-evaluate the international
situation and order.
He said that non-align is a term that has become vague
now.
NAM needs a permanent seat in the UN Security Council,
Gadafi said and suggested formulation of a Peace and Security
Council within the grouping.
Gadafi said terrorism has to be defined and all forms
of the scourge tackled firmly. Sources of the menace should be
spotted, he added.
He said billions of dollars have been stashed away by
al-Qaeda and other terror groups in Swiss banks.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said the world
remained in the grip of economic crisis and there was a need
for greater cooperation among NAM countries to deal with the
situation.
The summit's draft declaration calls for the grouping
to coordinate with China, which is attending the meet as an
observer, to have their voices heard in meetings of global
financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank.
Founded in September 1961 by first Indian Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former Egyptian President Gamal
Abdel-Nasser and ex-Yugoslav President Josip Tito, NAM now
groups 118 member states, 16 observer countries and 9 observer
organisations.
NAM has 53 states from Africa, 38 from Asia, 26 from
Latin America and Caribbean and one from Europe -- Belarus,
which was once part of the erstwhile USSR.
The grouping, which represents nearly two-thirds of
the UN member countries and comprises 55 per cent of the world
population, focuses on interests of developing world.
At the two-day Summit, the leaders are expected to
discuss the global financial crisis, climate change, the
Mideast peace process, food security, energy and nuclear
issues.
They are also scheduled to sign the Summit's Final
Document and Sharm El Sheikh Declaration and approve the NAM's
strategy and action plan for the future three years.
The summit is expected to produce declarations about
the security of the world's food supply, climate change and
the decade-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to honour
South African freedom icon Nelson Mandela. PTI