By: Staff Writer
January 16, Colombo (LNW): President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to visit Uganda to attend the Non-Aligned Summit scheduled to be held in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. He is expected to fly straight to Uganda after his visit to Switzerland.
The Sri Lanka president is currently in Davos participating in the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum from 15–19 January in Davos, Switzerland.
The 19th Non-Aligned Movement Summit commenced yesterday morning at Speke Resort, Munyonyo, near Kampala.
The 5 day meeting, with a focus on deepening cooperation for shared global affluence, is expected to address and issue resolutions on various topics, including geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, South China Sea tensions, climate change, transnational crime, human rights, and more.
The 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit kicked off on Monday in Kampala, Uganda amid global challenges including terrorism and climate change.
The five-day-long summit is the largest grouping of states worldwide after the UN, with 120 member states, 18 observer nations, and 10 organizations.
Uganda’s Foreign Minister Gen. Abubakar Jeje Odongo opened the summit in accordance with the norm and practice of NAM.
Today, we are faced with many challenges globally, including terrorism, climate change, debt burden, and famine, among others, and it is therefore befitting that this year’s summit will be held under the theme, Deepening Cooperation For Shared Global Affluence,” he said.
“NAM continues to hold significance as an organization, and in light of the intricate global landscape, the continued relevance of the 10-point Badung Principles remains evident in the present era,” he added.
In April, 1955, representatives from 29 governments of Asian and African nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development, and decolonization.
The Bandung principles include respect for the sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity of all states, rejection of the possibility of an unconstitutional change of government, the preservation of the inalienable right for each state is free, without interference from outside, to determine its political, social, economic and cultural system, and refusal from aggression and direct or indirect use of force.
The NAM summit is held every three years, usually in a different continent. The last meeting was held in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2019, with the theme, Upholding the Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of the contemporary world.
The summit will be addressed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, and more than 50 heads of state and government, among others. Overall, between 1,000 and 1,500 delegates are expected to attend the event.
