Turkmen President Underlines Importance of NAM Summit in Tehran

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the importance of the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran, and announced his country’s readiness to attend the meeting at the highest level.

Berdimuhamedov made the remarks in a cabinet meeting on Friday, during which Turkmen Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow also provided a report on the preparations and the agenda of Berdimuhamedov’s upcoming visit to Iran for the NAM meeting late August.

The 16th NAM summit will be held in Tehran from August 26 to 31.

Iran will assume the rotating presidency of the movement from Egypt for three years during the upcoming summit.

Earlier this week, Iranian officials said that all the members of the Non-Aligned Movement have declared their readiness to attend the bloc’s foreign ministerial and heads-of-state meetings in Tehran late August.

“All the 120 members of the Movement will attend the meeting,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters on the sidelines of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting in Tehran.

Iran also announced earlier this month that over 30 presidents have announced their readiness to attend the gathering.

NAM is comprised of some 120 member states and 17 observer countries.

NAM is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations’ members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing.