Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to officially open the upcoming 16th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at Nusa Dua, Bali, Wednesday (May 25).

The ministerial meeting will be preceded by a closed-door Senior Officials Meeting and a committee meeting to discuss political, economic and social issues, on May 23 and 24, according to an official statement of the meeting`s organizing committee, here Monday.

The NAM ministerial meeting which will be held until May 27, coincides with the 50th Anniversary of NAM. The meeting`s theme is "Shared Vision on the Contribution of NAM for the Next 50 Years."

The meeting is to be participated in by the foreign ministers of 118 NAM member countries, guests and observers.

Fiji and Azerbaijan will officially join the grouping at the meeting.

The 16th NAM Ministerial Meeting is expected to produce a declaration on Palestine, a Bali Commemorative Declaration, and a final document to update the results of the 15th NAM Summit which was held in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, in July 2009.

The NAM was founded in 1961 at its inaugural summit in Belgrade, capital of former Yugoslavia with 25 founding members, namely Afghanistan, Algeria, Yemen, Myanmar, Cambodia, Srilanka, Congo, Cuba, Syprus, Egupt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Morcco , Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yugoslavia.

The Belgrade conference put its emphasis on world peace and security and elimination of disputes through international peace and cooperation.

The movement declared it stand for the unity of the countries of the developing world in defence of their political and economic sovereignty and their choice of the political system that they would practice in their respective countries.

Josep Broz Tito of then Yugoslavia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia, and Kwame Nkruma of Ghana were among the founders of NAM. (*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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