President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran has arrived in Ghana on a visit as part of a three-nation African tour. The Convention People’s Party (CPP) welcomes his visit to Ghana.

President Ahmadinejad is the current Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a position he assumed at the 16th NAM summit which took place in Tehran, Iran, from 26 to 31 August 2012. 27 Presidents, 2 Kings and Emirs, 7 Prime Ministers, and 9 Vice Presidents attended the summit.

The CPP values President Ahmadinejad’s mission to explore with the Ghana Government ways of strengthening NAM as well as deliberation on issues of mutual interest.

We recall that The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) comprising of a group of states which are not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc., founded in Belgrade in 1961, was largely conceived by five world leaders including Ghana's first president and founder of the CPP Dr Kwame Nkrumah . NAM now has 120 members and 17 observer countries.

The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world population.

Fidel Castro’s Havana Declaration of 1979 that the purpose of the organization is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics", is still relevant today in a world of globalization and entrenched exploitation.

Part of the CPP’s Foreign Policy Objective is to:

· Maintain and strengthen membership of the AU, ECOWAS and other organisations including NAM.

· Pursue a foreign policy on mutual co-existence of states through bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements.

· Promote South/South co -operation

· Be a major force in the fight against imperialism, neo-colonialism, neo-fascism, racism and all forms of oppression, in solidarity with oppressed peoples all over the world.

At the heart of the CPP’s Philosophy of Nkrumaism is “ National Self Determination”

Iran is the 18th-largest country in the world with a population of around 75 million.

The 75million citizens of Iran have a right to self determination, a right represented by their elected President , President Ahmadinejad.

Iran is the home of an ancient civilization. The Persian Constitutional Revolution established the nation's first parliament in 1906.within a constitutional monarchy. Following a coup d'état instigated by the UK and US in 1953, Iran gradually became a more autocratic country. Growing dissent with foreign influence culminated in the Iranian Revolution which led to establishment of an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979. It has moved to build for itself industries in the fields of car-manufacture and transportation, construction materials, home appliances, food and agricultural goods, armaments, pharmaceuticals, information technology, power and petrochemicals .

It has the right to use the second largest natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest petroleum reserves for its development.

We wish President Ahmadinejad well on his African tour and hope this would lead to greater South/South cooperation.

We hope that the17th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement to be held in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2015 would further strengthen the spirit of NAM and revive commitment to the original purpose of the organization.

Nii Armah Akomfrah

CPP Director of Communication

www.conventionpeoplesparty.org