(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - To attend the summit, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flies to the capital of the oil-rich nation Wednesday on a four-day visit. She will lead a 45-member delegation to the summit and is likely to return on September 1. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni already left for Tehran Monday to take part in the summit. She will also participate in a two-day Ministerial Interactive General Debate on the theme ‘Lasting Peace through Joint Global Governance’. The two-day main summit of the NAM, a major international grouping of 120 countries, will be held at the OIC Convention Centre in Tehran on August 30-31, sources at Bangladesh foreign ministry said earlier. The prime minister will avail the opportunity of the NAM platform to express her views on a number of global political and economic issues. She will also hold a number of bilateral talks with leaders of different countries, including India and Iran, officials at the ministry said. At the summit, Bangladesh will draw attention to the world leaders on various issues, including UN reforms, peacekeeping, climate change, global food security, migration, development and special economic and trade concession needs of the least developed countries (LDCs). Iran is conferred the rotating three-year presidency of the NAM from Egypt ahead of Tehran summit and expects that a great number of the states will attend the summit in high levels, which seems to throw a spanner in the attempts of those who want to see Iran in isolation from its nuclear programme. Iran’s presidency over such a prominent international organisation comes while the European Union has just put into effect its intended oil embargo against Iran, banning the European states from importing oil from Iran, the fourth largest oil producer in the world. At the same time, the United States has imposed a fresh round of sanctions against Iran’s banking sector, penalising the foreign banks which have financial transactions with Iranian counterparts. The upcoming NAM summit in Tehran is an invaluable opportunity for Iran to show its diplomatic prowess and demonstrate that it’s not possible to isolate the oil-rich country. The NAM, which is comprised of two-thirds of UN member states, was established in 1961 in Belgrade. Despite the fact that the majority of its members are developing nations, many of them play a defining and determining role in such strategic regions as the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America. Although a non-alliance with the western and eastern superpowers is a characteristic feature of NAM members, emerging superpowers like China, Brazil and Mexico serve NAM as observing members. Moreover, countries such as India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa which have strong ties with the United States and are members of the G20 group (a bloc of 20 world major economies) are among the NAM member states. The summit will adopt ‘The Tehran Declaration’ which is likely to strictly oppose one-sided economic sanctions enacted by certain countries against the Non-Aligned nations.
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