Dhaka has reiterated its ‘zero tolerance’ stance against terrorism and violent extremism at the 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) held in Margarita Island in Venezuela. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, who represented Bangladesh at the Summit, detailed on Sunday the actions taken by the government of Bangladesh to degrade homegrown terrorists and to deny sanctuary to any regional or international terrorist operatives, said a Foreign Ministry press release yesterday. He also briefed the Summit of Bangladesh’s contribution to the global peace and security as one of the top peacekeeper contributing countries.
The state minister called upon the NAM to strengthen global governance of migration for ensuring adequate, safe, regular and orderly migration; to place climate change in its
priority list; to expand South-South cooperation in order to help realize its potentials as complementary to North-South and Triangular Cooperation; to continue to remain active in setting the agenda for global peace and addressing existing or emerging security threats including to win the battle against terrorists and violent extremists.
He informed the Member States about Bangladesh’s continuous efforts in strengthening democracy and justice by empowering people, especially women, and ensuring sustained growth and human development.
The Summit was attended by over one hundred Member States of the NAM, Observers of NAM and the International Organizations, while a number of Member States were represented at the Heads of State and Government level.
Nicolás Maduro Moros, President of Venezuela, assumed the Chairmanship of the 17th NAM Summit from Iran, the immediate past chair of NAM.
During the 17th Summit, under the theme ‘Peace, Sovereignty and Solidarity for Development’, NAM leaders adopted a Declaration with an aim to make joint efforts to achieve 21-points objectives which includes strengthening international peace and security, promotion and protection of human rights, combating terrorism, full implementation of 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, promotion of education, science and technology, especially, transfer of technology from the developed countries, safeguarding the rights of the migrants and strengthening south-south cooperation.