Non-Aligned Movement summit continues in Belgrade

A summit marking six decades since the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement, which is attended by a large number of foreign officials, continues today in Belgrade.

The high-level meeting will continue in Hall 11 of the Belgrade Fair at 9:30 am.

The final conference after the summit, that will be addressed by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Nikola Selakovic and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov will start at 6 pm.

Representatives of more than 105 countries, as well as nine other delegations from international organizations, are in the Serbian capital for a two-day gathering.

The hosts of the gathering, which is being held at the Belgrade Fair, like the Summit of September 1, 1961 which was also held there, are Serbia and Azerbaijan. The two-day summit began yesterday with addresses by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, followed by a plenary part with addresses by delegations, which continues today.

Other events are taking place in parallel, such as the Business Forum organized by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, as well as numerous bilateral meetings.

With the words, "Welcome home," President of Serbia Aleksandar started his address at the opening of the summit yesterday, and expressed hope that not only the past but also the future that we want to build together would be discussed.

"The world of dialogue, compromise and peace is still possible and achievable," said Vucic.

"The basic idea around which our predecessors gathered when they founded the Movement was peace. Peace is the basis for the development of cooperation, whether it is political or economic," he stressed.

The participants in the summit said yesterday that the issue of equality of states and nations is still relevant and pointed out that the problems the whole world is facing due to the coronavirus pandemic must be solved together.

The message sent out was also that the principles on which the Movement is based - mutual understanding, multilateralism and collective action are still relevant today.

The experience from the previous 60 years shows that only by working together, by cooperating, can one successfully face challenges, it was said on the first day of the summit.

Among the participants are Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo, son of the first Egyptian president and one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement Gamal Nasser - Abd al-Hakim Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of the United Nations General Assembly Abdul Shahid, about 40 foreign ministers, numerous special envoys from Asia, Africa, Latin American, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu are special guests.

More than 3,000 members of the Ministry of the Interior have been deployed in securing the event.

Six decades ago, leaders of 25 countries affirmed the idea of achieving a counterweight to the then bloc-divided world.

In the previous 60 years, the world has changed significantly, but the divisions have remained, so this gathering is an opportunity to give a new impetus to the idea of joint action of countries that are not among the world's leading political and economic forces. According to the decision of the city headquarters for emergency situations, the opening hours of retail facilities and restaurants have been extended until midnight from Saturday until Wednesday, October 13, due to the large number of guests.

(Telegraf.rs)