Message from Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, on the Occasion of the Commemoration of the 45th Anniversary of the Founding of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Day of the Non-Aligned Movement

Sept 05, Colombo: Affirming Sri Lanka's commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for "a greater sense of solidarity and unity" among its member countries. "We must strive to find pragmatic ways of making our Movement more effective and relevant to our people," he said in a statement released in anticipation of NAM's 14th Summit, to be held in Havana, Cuba, on September 11-16.

His full statement follows:

The Day of the Non-Aligned Movement that we commemorate this year falls at a momentous time in our Movement’s journey. We are a mere 5 years away from marking half-a-century of our existence; we are on the eve of holding our 14th Summit in Cuba, when a country that has been associated with our Movement for long years will assume its leadership once again; and we meet at a time when it has become imperative for our Movement, more than ever before, to find ways and means of finding solutions, as a united force, for the challenges that confront not only the developing countries, but the world at large.

It is time, in my view, that the members of our Movement reminded ourselves of the importance of drawing from our collective strengths. The first elected woman Head of Government of the modern world, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, articulated this vision when Sri Lanka assumed the Chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1976:

“At the United Nations, the strength of the Non-Aligned Movement has been bitterly criticized as a ‘tyranny of the majority’. We know that non-alignment has never been, was never intended to be, and shall never become, a tyranny. If anything, it has been the most powerful weapon against other tyrannies which the world, especially the Third World, has been familiar with over the last five centuries: the tyranny of poverty, the tyranny of hunger, malnutrition and starvation, the tyranny of disease and premature death, and the tyranny, above all, of the complete absence of the prospect of any happiness or hope. Yet we may draw satisfaction from this criticism because it is the most positive, though unwitting, acknowledgement of our solidarity and our commitment to democratic methods in our struggle against the evils of the old order.”

These words, 30 years later, still remain relevant and inspirational. We would do well to bear this simple truth in mind as we seek to re-invigorate our Movement.

In our pursuit of a just and equitable world order, where peace and security, development and human rights are secured for each individual, we must bear in mind the five principles which our Movement drew from at its inception: mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in domestic affairs; equality and mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence.

As we commemorate 45 years of NAM and take stock of our achievements, we must remain focused on the need to chart our future with utmost care. We must strive to find pragmatic ways of making our Movement more effective and relevant to our people. The forthcoming Summit in Havana will provide us the ideal opportunity to embark on collective reflection of this need at the highest level.

We in Sri Lanka remain firm in our commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement. It is our conviction that in order for NAM to decisively influence developments at the global level, the Movement should manifest the collective strength of its membership. For this purpose, the Movement must set up procedures and mechanisms to make decisive pronouncements and follow through effectively on decisions that are made.

In order to achieve these ends, it is time that we gave due consideration to expanding and deepening the value base of the Movement in order to take measures to inculcate a greater sense of solidarity and unity of purpose among our membership. Such action calls for imagination and innovativeness on the part of all our members. In this respect, it is important for NAM to strengthen its emphasis on the primacy of multilateralism in today’s world, and undertake the promotion of issues of contemporary importance and relevance such as political pluralism and the rule of law.

As we, today, recall the memory of the leaders who preceded us, the pioneers of our Movement, I hope that NAM would gain strength from their vision, to work with renewed conviction towards making our Movement more effective in finding solutions to the problems faced by our people.

I wish our Movement well, and look forward to our Summit in Havana.

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