The 115-member Non-Aligned Movement still has a relevance and a role to play, South Africa’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, said on Monday.
”NAM still remains [as] relevant today as it was in 1961 when it was launched in Belgrade,” said Kumalo during a media briefing on the eve of a NAM Ministerial Conference in Durban.
According to South African officials, delegations from all 115 NAM member states are expected to attend, with around 80 delegations led by ministers or deputy ministers.
NAM’s closing ceremony on Thursday, after an address earlier in the day by President Thabo Mbeki, will precede the second Asian-African sub-regional organisation conference that ends on Friday.
NAM was set up at the height of the Cold War and some commentators have speculated whether, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the organisation has outlived its usefulness.
However, Kumalo said as the world moved into the future and with larger countries perceived as having more of a say than smaller countries, NAM was the organisation that brought together those smaller nations so that a ”common voice” could be heard.
Its biggest achievement in its more than 40 years of existence was that it had stuck by its principles of pursuing the interests of the developing world, such as peace, security and development.
It was the premier body and voice for developing countries within the multi-lateral system, he said.
Kumalo’s sentiments were echoed by the foreign affairs department director-general Ayanda Ntsaluba, who said NAM played a key role in nudging the world in the direction of achieving the Millennium Goals on poverty reduction, health and education.
Ntsaluba said there was a need to ”maintain that solidarity” and push ahead until the goals were achieved.
He said some of the ”very difficult areas” delegates would discuss, using a document prepared by South Africa as a basis, included disarmament, global terrorism and challenging areas within the African continent, including the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Ntsaluba also predicted ”robust discussions” on Iraq and the Palestine-Israel situation, with a special NAM committee, comprising 16 member states dedicated to the Palestine question scheduled to sit on Wednesday.
The NAM ministerial conference, themed ”Multi-lateralism in the 21st Century”, would focus on strengthening multi-lateral institutions in a changing geo-political scenario, said Ntsaluba.
”[It is] a critical issue for developing countries,” he said, adding that deliberation at the conference would help delegates make a better contribution to the reform of the United Nations system. – Sapa