18th NAM Summit: PM Oli to hold bilateral talks with NAM Chair

• Manoj Karki / RSS Nepal

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct 26 : The second and final day of the 18^th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) began here this morning with continuation of the general debate on the theme of “Upholding the Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of contemporary world”. The generate debate had begun following the formal opening and election of the new NAM chair at the Baku Congress Centre (BCC) on Friday.

Heads of delegation of member countries, who did not speak on the topic yesterday, will do so until 17:30 local time today. A total of 21 heads of delegation including Heads of State or Government had addressed the working session on the theme of the general debate yesterday. Representing the Asia and Pacific region as the Vice-chair, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had chaired the second half of the general debate on Friday. He had also closed the session after delivering his own national statement.

After the end of the general debate, the delegates will adopt different documents of the Summit. This includes the Final Document that outlines all the issues discussed and agreed upon during the Summit. Furthermore, the Summit will come up with a political message while also passing a Declaration on Palestine.

Prior to the closing ceremony, the Summit will adopt the Baku Declaration. The Summit will consider the reports of the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting held prior to the Summit, review the progress achieved in the implementation of the outcomes of the 17^thSummit held in 2016, and conclude with the adoption of the Baku Declaration.

The closing ceremony of the 18^th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of NAM will be held at the Plenary Hall of the BCC. The ceremony will be addressed by representatives of the regional groups including African region, Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, and European Region.

The summit shall come to an end with the Closing Remarks by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Chair of NAM IlhamAliyev.

PM Oli to hold bilateral talks

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Heads of State or Governments of different countries at the BCC premises later this afternoon. He is scheduled to meet with the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

            Prime Minister Oli will also hold bilateral talks with host President and NAM Chair Ailyev, according to Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi.

It may be noted that Prime Minister Oli is leading a 21-member Nepali delegation to the 18^th NAM summit. The Nepali delegation includes Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister BishnuRimal, Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister DrRajanBhattarai, Foreign Secretary Bairagi, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations AmritRai and senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as state media representatives.            

The Prime Minister and his delegation will return from Baku today evening and arrive Kathmandu on Sunday morning via Doha, Qatar.