Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday delivered a special message to President John Atta Mills at the Castle, Osu.

The message, believed to be an invitation to the President to attend the upcoming 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Teheran next month, was delivered by a Special Envoy, Dr. Mohammed Abbasi, Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth.

Receiving the message, President Mills reaffirmed Ghana's commitment to the values of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) towards cooperating with other developing nations for socio-economic development.

He said Ghana still considered the Movement as very relevant and that the emerging national development challenges required nations to work together to overcome the common challenges.

President Mills said, Ghana as a founding member of the Movement, would continue to pursue the common objectives of the group and provide the necessary support to other nations.

He expressed appreciation to the Iranian President for the invitation and gave the assurance that Ghana would be fully represented.

On the relations between Accra and Iran, President Mills said he was happy for the progress made in the bilateral trade.

Dr Abbasi praised Ghana for its contribution to the progress of the Movement and told the President “We are looking forward to seeing you in Tehran.”

He commended Ghana for the impressive democratic and economic progress achieved and lauded the improved relations between the two nations.

He pledged Iran's continuous commitment to its relations and would assist Ghana in the health and education sectors.

The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states that consider themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the Movement had 120 members and 21 observer countries.

The organization was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia's President Josip Broz Tito, India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana’s President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Indonesia’s President Sukarno and Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie.

The movement was to fight 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.

NAM encourages sustainable development among member countries, represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55%.**