Tehran (ANTARA News/IRNA) - Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi left here Sunday for Bali, Indonesia to take part in the 16th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be held on May 23-27.

FM to attend 16th NAM meeting in Indonesia.

Ministers and experts participating in the meeting are to hold talks on world important issues, political developments in Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America as well as the issue of human rights.

Prior to his China`s visit, Salehi is to pay a short visit to China in order to confer with his counterpart on various international, regional and bilateral issues.

Indonesia`s most famous tourist island of Bali will host the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)`s 16th Ministerial Conference and Commemorative Meeting from May 23 to 27, 2011.

Under the theme "Shared Vision on the Contribution of NAM for the next 50 years", the NAM Ministerial Conference and Commemorative Meeting will be held on May 25 - 27, and be preceded by a NAM Senior Officials Meeting from May 23 to 24, 2011.

The ministerial conference would review developments around and the implementation of the decisions made at the 15th Summit of NAM in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009, evaluate the latest international developments, particularly those related to the issues of interest to NAM member countries, and assess the achievements made so far in the process of revitalizing and strengthening the Non-Aligned Movement since the last Summit.

The Commemorative Meeting will be a forum to deliberate a vision for NAM`s role in the future. At present NAM has 118 member countries.

The meeting will also invite two future members of the movement, namely Fiji and Azerbaijan that will be inaugurated as members of the movement.

The first Conference of Non-Aligned Heads of State at which 25 countries were represented was convened in Belgrade in September 1961 amid the "cold war" between the US and the Soviet Union.

The NAM`s first conference was organized mainly on the initiative of then Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito who had expressed concern that an escalating arms race might result in war between the Soviet Union and the USA.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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