Accra, July 13, GNA - Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, left Accra on Sunday for Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt, to attend the Interactive Ministerial Debate of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The Debate precedes the 15th Summit of NAM scheduled for July 15-16, at the same venue.

A statement released by Ministry on Monday said the interactive debate, which is being held on the theme: "International Solidarity for Peace and Development and Current Economic and Financial Crisis", would focus on peace and security and promoting socio-economic development, two main challenges confronting the NAM at the present time. It said the session will examine avenues for establishing durable conditions for peace, security and stability among member states of the Movement, while exploring at the same time, opportunities to ameliorate the impact of the recent global economic crisis on developing countries. The NAM, which comprises 118 countries from the developing world, traces its origins to the Cold War era of the 1960s and 1970s when a group of like-minded countries, including Ghana, India, Indonesia, Egypt and the then Yugoslavia, formed the nucleus of a Movement to chart a course of positive neutrality in international affairs, such as the right to take principled positions on international issues without favouring either of the existing super power blocs.

The statement said from its inception at the Afro-Asian Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955, the NAM established itself as a moral force in international politics and endeavoured to entrench in the international system the ideal that international disputes should be resolved by peaceful means and not by military might.

It stated that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted the Movement with the need to reconfigure its mission to remain relevant in a fast-changing world embracing globalization.

The focus of the NAM has accordingly shifted away from essentially political issues to the advocacy of solutions to global economic and related issues, adding that in the process, the Movement has identified economic under-development, poverty and social injustices as growing threats to international peace and security.

The statement said in addressing the theme of the debate, the NAM would be seeking viable options that would enable its members to become more resilient in the prevailing international system and also identify ways of strengthening co-operation within the Movement to realize these objectives.

President John Evans Atta Mills will attend the Summit. 13 July 09