PM Hasina elected NAM vice-chair
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina elected NAM vice-chairDhaka, July 16 )—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was unanimously elected vice chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement's Asia Zone on Thursday at the 15th NAM summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The global economic recession, climate change, the Middle East and food security dominated the two-day summit, which was attended by heads of state and governments from over 100 NAM nations. The summit concluded with the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration to revitalise and reinvigorate NAM's role and influence as the principal political platform representing developing countries in multilateral forums, particularly the United Nations. The declaration said member counties had agreed to take concrete measures to maximise the movement's ability to deal with rapidly changing global challenges. Bilateral talks Hasina, who presided over the summit for some time on its closing day, had sideline meetings with Malaysian prime minister Najib bin Tun Haji Abul Razak, Nepalese prime minister Madhov Kumar Nepal, Thailand's foreign minister Kasit Piromya and Qatar's foreign minister Khalid Mohammad Al Aphiya, on the concluding day of the summit. . She called on Malaysia and Qatar to recruit more Bangladeshi workers. On Wednesday, prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh held their first bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit against a backdrop of Bangladesh's concerns over India's planned Tipaimukh Dam and maritime boundaries. During the meeting, Hasina expressed the hope that all contentious issues, including the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam, would be resolved through dialogue with India. Singh gave assurances to Hasina that India would not do anything that would be against Bangladesh's interests. The first summit between Hasina, who returned to power in January this year, and Singh, in his second stint in office, took place just a day after foreign minister Dipu Moni charged India with being "very aggressive" over sea border claims. 'Climate a major global challenge' In her address to the summit earlier on Wednesday, Hasina highlighted climate change, security concerns and the global financial crisis. "I believe climate change remains as one of the most daunting global challenges of our time," Hasina told the gathering of state and government leaders from around the world. She said Bangladesh, as a least developed country and situated in a low-lying delta, remained deeply concerned with the impact of global warming. Hasina said concerns of least developed countries were often bypassed in the global debate, and it was vital that greater attention was paid to them at the Copenhagen climate talks later in the year. Security She said global peace and security also remain one of NAM's overriding concerns and Bangladesh was proud of its record as one of the top contributors to the international peace keeping force. Hasina said her administration had proposed establishment of a South Asian Task Force on Counter-Terrorism, and was now working with regional partners to realise the project. Meanwhile, in another key meeting of the summit, India and Pakistan agreed to work together to fight terrorism and ordered their top diplomats to meet as often as needed to try to rebuild ties damaged by last year's Mumbai attacks. But Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, after the meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani at the summit, ruled out a resumption of formal peace talks, known as the "composite dialogue", that Islamabad has been seeking. Founded in 1961, during the Cold War by countries not considering themselves formally aligned with or against any major power bloc in the world, NAM has 118 member states. The grouping comprises nearly two-thirds of UN member states and 55 percent of the world's population. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was elected new NAM chairman at the start of the just-concluded summit, replacing Cuban president Raul Castro.
XV Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
Sharm El Sheikh, 11-16 July 2009
Sharm El Sheikh, 11-16 July 2009
