NAM ministers meet to discuss crucial issues
NAM ministers meet to discuss crucial issues
By Oei Eng Goan
CAIRO (JP): International economic cooperation, the role of
the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in a changing world and the
selection of a new chair will be the main topics at NAM's 11th
ministerial meeting.
"NAM's ministerial meeting in Cairo is important because it is
expected to name a country which will replace Indonesia as the
current chairman of the 110 member movement," said Nana Sutresna,
head of the Indonesian delegation to the meeting and also the
movement's secretary.
He said another important topic which is likely to come out at
the meeting is the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to which all
NAM members are expected to adhere.
Nana has replaced Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, who
suffered from a mild heart attack last week, as head of the
government delegation to the meeting.
More than 80 foreign ministers from member nations have
arrived in Cairo to attend the four-day meeting, scheduled to
open here today with as speech from Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak.
The conference, which is held at the Cairo International
Conference Center, the circular building where the historic peace
agreement between Israel and Palestine was signed earlier this
month, is being conducted amid tight security.
Main issues
Nana said Indonesia and Egypt have agreed that the meeting
should cover three main issues, NAM's role in creating
international peace, economic cooperation and a restructuring of
the United Nations.
He also said that South Africa, whose black majority elected
their first government a month ago, has officially applied for
membership in the movement.
Other countries such as Italy, the Ukraine and Russia have
also sent delegations as guests to the meeting.
Earlier yesterday, senior officials of NAM member countries
met to map out the agenda for the ministerial meeting. The senior
officials' meeting was chaired by Nugroho Wisnumurti, Indonesia's
ambassador to the United Nations.
Informed sources said that other topics such as the bloodbath
in Rwanda, the outbreak of civil war in Yemen and the continued
fighting in Bosnia will also be focussed on during the meeting.
They said that a draft declaration prepared for the conference
includes, among other things, a condemnation of the "armed
aggression, genocide and ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Moslems
and the arms embargo on Bosnia, which is tantamount to denying
their right to self defense."
Chair
Indonesia's chairmanship of NAM will expire next year and the
Cairo meeting will decide which country will chair the movement
through 1998. The choice of chairman will be made a year prior to
NAM's 11th Summit, scheduled for next year. NAM's 10th Summit was
held in Jakarta in September 1992.
Since its establishment in 1961, NAM's chairmanship has passed
from one member country to another every three years on a
rotating basis, with the country hosting the summit automatically
taking the leadership until the next meeting.
Nana said that although Nicaragua had dropped its ambition to
become the next chairman due to domestic economic problems,
Indonesia hopes that the next NAM chairman, in agreement with the
movement's regulations, must be a Latin American country.
Other members of the Indonesian delegation to the meeting
include Ishar Ibrahim and Wisber Loeis, respectively Director
General for Politics and Director General for Foreign Economic
Relations of the Foreign Ministry, Boer Mauna, ambassador to
Egypt and Soemadi Brotodiningrat, ambassador to the UN in Geneva.