The 19th summit of the heads of state and governments of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), have started today, Monday January 15th 2023 at the Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo with a special segment of senior officials from member states.
The long awaited meeting kicked off with the handover of the chairmanship from Azerbaijan to Uganda in which Ambassador Adonia Ayebare the permanent representative of Uganda to the United Nations was elected as the chair for the senior official’s meeting of the summit of heads of states and government.
Speaking at the senior officials meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs General Jeje Odong thanked the Republic of Azerbaijan for steering the work of the movement since they assumed the chairmanship for the period 2019-2022, at the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic. The senior officials and ministerial meetings are preparatory meetings to the main summit conference.
In his remarks, Jeje Odong pointed out that as member states, they are faced with several challenges including armed conflicts in different parts of the world, food insecurity, migration, unemployment, health pandemics, climate change, and terrorism among the myriad of challenges.
“We also recognize challenges in financing for development and the issue of debt burden that paints a depressing global economic outlook. It is therefore crucial for us to address existing, new and emerging issues collectively and in the interest of our membership, for the good of mankind,” he said.
Uganda’s foreign affairs minister maintained his position on the 60th anniversary of the first Non-Aligned Movement conference, which will be held in Belgrade in October 2021, saying that multilateralism and solidarity are needed now more than ever for the movement to individually prepare for and collectively respond to future challenges.
“Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is therefore befitting that this year’s Summit will be held under the theme “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence.” This is indeed a call for cooperation and collaboration within the NAM membership, and this will be emphasized in the outcome documents,” he said
He further encouraged the visitors to explore Uganda beyond the summit that runs for the whole week.
“I want to encourage you during the course of the summit not to limit yourself to the conference venues and the city-Kampala, but also find time to explore other parts of the country to enjoy the beautiful flora and fauna, and indeed enjoy the hospitality of the Ugandan people,” he said.
Over 5000 delegates are in attendance of this the NAM summit and the G77+China Summit that is due next week at also the same venue of Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, Uganda police, directives have been issued to security companies which they have to adhere to during the time when the visitors are around.
Among the directives, police has banned the movement of security guards with guns in the Kampala Metropolitan area, but to keep the guns at their stations and change the fire arms in a rational mode.
Additionally, all private security organizations deploying guards in the Kampala Metropolitan area are hereby notified that due to the high level Summits that the government of Uganda is hosting this month, there is a ban on movement of private security guards with fire arms from 12th January 2024 to the end of January 2024”.
