NAM Ministerial Meeting to be held in Malaysia on May 29-30

New Delhi, May 24: The two-day Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministerial Meeting at Putrajaya in Malaysia on May 29-30 will discuss among other things the UN reforms and the issue of an Asian candidate for the UN Secretary General's post falling vacant in December.

The meeting of the 114-nation grouping is a prelude to the 14th NAM Summit scheduled to be held in Havana on September 15-16.

Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, who will lead the Indian delegation at the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM-CoB), left here for Ghana. He will fly to Putrajaya from Accra for the NAM Ministerial on May 26.

A senior official said the NAM-COB would discuss the UN reforms and the possibility of having an Asian candidate as the next Secretary General of the world body after Kofi Annan.

The official said India would convince other members of the Grouping to take a ''coherent and stronger'' position on major international issues including UN reforms and expansion of UN Security Council, bigger say in the management of the world body and the Iranian nuclear issue.

Ways to rejuvenate the NAM would also be deliberated upon.

Asserting that NAM was ''very much relevant'' today, the senior official said both Asian and African countries constituted about 106 strong group in the UN. Everybody believed that the post of the UN Secretary General should be held on a rotational basis and now was the turn of an Asian candidate.

Already three Asian candidates--from South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand--have thrown in hat for the post.

Asked whether India had taken any stand on supporting any candidate, the official said the issue could be discussed in general and specifics would not be touched.

An official spokesman said the Ministerial Meeting will focus on the theme 'Towards a More Dynamic and Cohesive Non-Aligned Movement : Challenges of the 21st Century'.

Before attending the Plenary General Debate on this theme, Mr Sharma will also participate in the Ministerial Meeting of the NAM Troika Countries and the Group of Former NAM Chair Countries and the Ministerial Meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine and the NAM Caucus in the Security Council on May 28.

The Ministerial Meeting will be preceded by a Senior Official's Meeting (SOM) on May 27-28 which will finalise preparations for the Ministerial Meeting, particularly regarding the Draft Final Document of the Meeting.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Nirupam Sen, will lead the Indian delegation at the SOM.

''The forthcoming Ministerial Meeting in Malaysia and the Summit in Cuba provide very useful opportunities to pursue the shared interests of NAM countries by consensus and to further strengthen the NAM as a collective, serious and pragmatic voice of the developing world on contemporary global issues,'' the spokesman said.

UNI