Minister Gyawali attends NAM conference

Kathmandu, April 6

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali yesterday led the Nepali delegation to the 18th Mid-Term Ministerial Conference of Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Earlier, Gyawali attended the opening session of the conference which was addressed by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, according to Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United States.

In the first plenary session, Nepal was elected as a Vice-chair of the Ministerial Conference representing the Asia-Pacific region. After the report presentation of the senior officials meeting held on April 3 and 4, an interactive debate on ‘Promoting international peace and security for sustainable development’ was held.

Participating at the debate, Minister Gyawali highlighted the continued relevance of NAM’s principles and underscored the importance of solidarity among NAM countries. He also emphasised on the need to share best practices and resources to deal with conflict and achieve sustainable development goals. He also expressed Nepal’s readiness to share its experience of successful peace process.

Minister Gyawali also presided over a part of the afternoon session of the interactive dialogue as a vice-chair today.

He also held several bilateral meetings. Minister Gyawali paid a courtesy call on President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. On the occasion, he conveyed greetings from President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister K.P Sharma Oli to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. During the meeting, prospects of closer relations between Nepal and Azerbaijan on bilateral and multilateral fronts were discussed, among other matters of mutual interest.

On the sidelines of the conference, Minister Gyawali met with his counterpart of Republic of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, who is also the chair of the ongoing NAM Ministerial Conference, Jorge Arreaza Montserrat, Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the current Chair of NAM and Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ecuador. During these meetings, matters of mutual interests among NAM members, were discussed.

Similarly, Minister Gyawali held a bilateral meeting with MevlütÇavuşoğlu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey during which views were exchanged on various areas of bilateral cooperation, including air connectivity, tourism, trade, hydropower and newly established Technology Bank for least developed countries. Moreover, Turkey is a co-chair of the Group of Friends of the LDCs and an observer of NAM.

During these meetings, Durga Prasad Bhattarai, ambassador/permanent representative of Nepal to the United Nations, Surendra Thapa, counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York and Jit Bahadur Karkee, section officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accompanied Gyawali.

In the afternoon, Minister Gyawali attended the luncheon hosted by the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan in honour of the heads of the delegations to NAM conference.