Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola left the country today to attend a ministerial conference on Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
The three day meeting starting on Monday will allow NAM member nations to assess the situation and take necessary decisions to boost the action of the Non-Aligned Movement.
During this meeting, Ratu Inoke will be delivering a statement on behalf of the Fijian Government addressing issues on the recent development in the country as well as Fiji's bilateral and multilateral relations.
The NAM, which comprises 120 nations and 20 observer countries, focuses mainly on issues relating to economic and social development, democracy, disarmament and peace.
Fiji joined the Non- Aligned Movement in 2011.
Ratu Inoke, when speaking during Fiji’s first NAM summit in Tehran, Iran last year, said that in an effort to build a better Fiji, “we have learnt that we should not be dismayed by those bigger powers that try to dictate to us how we should govern ourselves.”
Instead, Ratu Inoke said, countries should remain strong and fully engage with those that are more understanding towards their cause; those which truly respect the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference.
“This is the reason we find great value in being a member of the Movement. And this is the reason we believe that NAM could play a more prominent role in facilitating space for Joint Global Governance for its members,” he said in Tehran in August last year.
The NAM, founded in Belgrade, Serbia in 1961 by leaders from then Yugoslavia, India, Egypt, Ghana and Indonesia, is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc.
The NAM countries represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55 per cent of the world population.
Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.
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