Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Apr. 28 (VNA) -- Since its establishment 40 years ago, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has gone through many ups and downs to gain its position and have its voice as today on the global scale.

The remark was made by Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh while addressing the ministerial conference of the NAM in Durban, South Africa, on Sunday.

The movement, the Vietnamese official noted, has made considerable contributions to the abolition of colonialism and served as a great source of encouragement to the national liberation movement. The NAM has played an active role in preventing the arms race and war in the interest of world peace and security.

Today the NAM continues to be an irreplaceable forum for developing countries to raise their common voice for safeguarding their national sovereignty, protesting against imposition and intervention from outside, and pushing up development cooperation for a world of peace, equality and prosperity for all nations, big and small.

Terrorism has become a primary, direct, regular and long-term threat to peace and stability in the world, the Vietnamese official stressed. He told the conference that Viet Nam condemns all forms of terrorism but that the fight against terrorism should not further complicate international relations and that anti-terrorism should not be used as a pretext to realise a policy of hegemony by using force to intervene into other countries and violate their sovereignty.

Regarding the recent situation in the Middle East, the Vietnamese head delegate stressed that Israel's military attacks in the region over the past 19 months posed a great challenge to NAM member countries and the international community. Israel's military actions reflected its disregard for international law and opinion, putting the peace process in the Middle East into a deadlock, and threatening peace, security and stability in the region.

Viet Nam affirms its strong support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people for their inalienable national rights, Deputy FM Binh told the conference.

Binh said that the NAM, a loyal friend of the Palestinian people, should continue to support the Palestinian people at this difficult moment by demanding that Israel put an end to its military raids on Palestine and stop besieging President Yasser Arafat -- the legitimate leader chosen by the Palestinian people and recognised by the international community.

On the issue of cooperation for development, Binh said that improving the international environment for development continues to be an urgent task of the NAM.

He called on member countries of the NAM to make concerted efforts to build and strengthen an open and fair multilateral commercial system and to ask the World Trade Organisation to apply simpler procedures for the admission of new members while taking into consideration the disparity in the levels of development among different countries, particularly poor and under-developed countries.

NAM member countries should boost their dialogues and cooperation with developed countries in order to raise the quantity, quality and efficiency of aid projects for their development, he added.

During the process of finding out new cooperation methods and models, NAM member countries should immediately further their cooperation within the South-South cooperation framework and actively assist one another to develop, Binh concluded.--VNA