The head of state arrived at the venue at around 9 am local time in the company of Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Araby, and the 65th UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss.
In his opening address, President Yudhoyono said Bali was a Hindu island at the heart of the world`s largest archipelago where the Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists live in peace and harmony.
"I believe such "unity in diversity" is also what sustains the Non-Aligned Movement," said the Indonesian head of state.
President Yudhoyono on the occasion said he was pleased to commend the Arab Republic of Egypt for its stewardship of the Movement since 2009, and for carrying the distinguished baton of Chairmanship that went back 50 years ago.
"Today, we celebrate half a century of our Movement`s long struggle for a better world. As a founding member of the Non-Aligned, Indonesia is honored and humbled to be part of this largest movement for peace in history," Yudhoyono said in his opening address.
"As we mark our achievements, this is also a good time for all of us, to determine how the Non-Aligned can be a greater force for peace, justice and prosperity in the 21st century," he added.
According to Yudhoyono, the Movement could take pride in what it has achieved in the last 50 years, and has significantly grown from a Movement of states of 25 countries in 1961 to 118 countries.
The president said the Movement has helped shape the world order, contained the spread of conflicts, and preserved and expanded peace where it could.
"We also successfully advanced decolonization by supporting the struggle of nations for liberation and self-determination. We effectively helped to end apartheid. We worked very hard, to advance a vision of a world of zero nuclear weapons," the president said.
Before President Yudhoyono opened the conference, Marty Natalegawa said 16th Ministerial Convergence of the NAM aimed to standardize a common vision NAM`s member countries for the next 50 years.
"The conference will also will adopt several documents, one of them is about Palestine," Marty said, adding that the conference was attended by the delegates from 128 countries.
(Uu.O001/F001)
(T.SYS/A/O001/A/O001) 25-05-2011 14:21:57
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
