Calls for 'new world order' at NAM summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090715/wl_asia_afp/egyptnamsummit;_ylt=Ascq46UG_i4QAK8FuOCspF10fNdF SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – More than 50 heads of state from the developing world met Wednesday in Egypt to tackle the fallout from the global economic meltdown, with calls for a "new world order" to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
Cuban President Raul Castro said in a speech at the opening session of the Non-Aligned Movement summit that the financial crisis had hit developing nations the hardest.
"Every country in the world must seek just solutions to the global economic crisis," Castro told the 118-member body at the gathering in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"We call for a new monetary and economic world order... we must restructure the world financial system to take into consideration the needs of developing countries."Global power dynamics also need to be addressed, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said, demanding a restructuring of the UN Security Council which he branded a form of terrorism "monopolised by a few countries that are permanent members."
"This represents a danger toward international peace. We have suffered all sorts of harm from the Security Council, it has become a sword over our necks," he said. "The Security Council is terrorism."
Kadhafi said he wanted to correct the imbalance at the Security Council, demanding a permanent seat for the 53-member African Union, which he chairs.
India said members should play a bigger role on the world stage.
"Decision-making processes, whether in the United Nations or the international financial institutions continue to be based on charters written more than 60 years ago, though the world has changed greatly since then," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
"Developing countries must be fully represented in the decision-making levels of international institutions," Singh said.
But the developing world's military ambitions looked set to steal the summit limelight, with nuclear-armed South Asian foes India and Pakistan to hold talks on Thursday aimed at relaunching stalled peace talks.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed optimism that relations with India were headed on the right track.
"There has recently been some forward movement in our relations with India," Gilani said.
"We hope to sustain this momentum and move towards comprehensive engagement. We believe durable peace in South Asia is achievable," he said.
New Delhi and Islamabad's fraught relations deteriorated after terror attacks in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai in November last year which killed 166 people.
The attacks were blamed by India on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Pakistan has acknowledged they were partially planned on its soil.
Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon has been holding talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salim Bashir since Tuesday in preparation for the meeting between Singh and Gilani.
Menon told a press conference Wednesday night that the talks were continuing.
"We have had good detailed discussions. We are still in the process of talking to each other," he said.
Singh has voiced hope that Pakistan will promise action against those behind the attacks when he meets Gilani for only the second high-level contact between the two sides since the Mumbai bombings.
Pakistan has said that it would "probably" put the five accused of involvement in the attacks on trial next week.
The attacks left in tatters a fragile peace process launched in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict, including a territorial dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
India, along with host Egypt, is one of the founding members of the NAM, the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations, aimed at giving a voice to the developing world.
Founded in 1955, NAM's 118 member states represent around 56 percent of the global population. NAM states consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc
Jue Jul 16, 2009 2:21 pm