At NAM, President Wickremesinghe calls for opposing spread of big power rivalry
COLOMBO/KAMPALA – Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday (19) called for transforming the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) into the largest bloc representing the Global South as he stressed the “need to oppose the spread of big power rivalry including the coercion of uncommitted states”.
Wickremesinghe made the comments while addressing the Non-Aligned Movement summit in the Ugandan capital city of Kampala which began on Friday.
The NAM is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
In his address, Wickremesinghe said the NAM should assume a new role in a multipolar world — “to transform itself as the largest bloc representing the Global South”.
“We must also recast our objectives. While upholding the Bandung Principles in the evolving multipolar world, we need to oppose the spread of big power rivalry, including the coercion of uncommitted states, and build a multipolar world, which incorporates the political, economic, social and climate change mitigation aspirations of the Global South,” he said.
Wickremesinghe said a “humanitarian crisis” is unfolding in the Gaza Strip and beyond.
“For over three months, immense suffering and losses have been endured by the Palestinian civilian population, endangering regional security and stability. Until now, the NAM was largely silent. How can we remain silent when Gaza is (being) destroyed? People were denied humanitarian aid and a vast majority of the dead are innocent civilians. Silence implies consent,” he said.
The president said it was encouraging that the 19th NAM Summit has given the highest priority to the crisis in Gaza and the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine to self-determination and the realisation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine.
“There cannot be a two-state solution based on one state — Israel. No resolution is possible without a state of Palestine. Therefore, in line with multiple UN Resolutions, and the Declaration of this Summit, the international community must recognise the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as territories coming within the State of Palestine, and in addition, there should be no change in the ethnic composition of Gaza.
“Sri Lanka also proposes that the State of Palestine be established within five years and no more,” Wickremesinghe asserted.
The Sri Lankan president was critical of the major powers, saying that free trade and economic integration are being reversed by the policy-driven rise of trade protectionism due to strategic competition among the major powers.
“The weaponizing of the Dollar. New challenges of economic and the debt crisis, climate justice, food and energy security. Digital and technological divides and advanced WMD arsenals have aggravated existing inequalities between the developing states of the NAM and the developed world,” he said.
Wickremesinghe said the NAM membership today is no longer a grouping of weak states.
“We must recognise that as a result of the rapid progress and economic advancement of some Asian, African and Latin American states. A majority of the 10 leading economies of 2050 will belong to this movement,” he underlined.
-PTI
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