NAM hails President for crushing terrorism

by P.Krishnaswamy

President Mahinda Rajapaksa represented Sri Lanka at the 15th Summit of the 118 member Non-aligned Movement (NAM) in Egypt as Head of State with the unique achievement of defeating terrorism. He received the acclaim of all Member Countries, said Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama addressing the media last Friday after his return from Egypt. When Sri Lanka as a founder member hosted the NAM Summit in Colombo in 1976 under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike the country was in the grip of growing terrorism.

Jaffna mayor Alfred Duraiyappa and many others were assassinated the previous year and the country ravaged by terrorism for over three decades thereafter, he also said. Wide discussions, engagements, bilateral meetings and interactions the President and the Sri Lankan delegation had with world leaders numbering 60 Heads of State and 118 Foreign Ministers were a major opportunity for Sri Lanka to share successes in counter terrorism measures and engage widely with the international community in terms of Sri Lanka’s post-conflict development agenda.

The focal point of the President’s message at the Summit was that NAM was a movement Sri Lanka associated with and strongly believed that it was a force among other forces; ‘the strongest moral force in the world’, the Foreign Minister said.

The NAM is where all leaders come together in highlighting the need for solidarity among the developing world. Our President articulated well the role of NAM against international sanctions on countries, the need for the NAM to have its own secretariat so that structurally we could address on some of the challenges and opportunities for equal trade to the world community, the need to counter terrorism with resolve and have an integrated development agenda. He also stressed on the need for closer relationships among member countries in building our economies and, above all, the need for maintaining peace and security in all regions of the world, Minister Bogollagama said.