Sir Louis Straker addresses Non-Aligned Movement

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sir Louis Straker has said that the Non-Aligned Movement should adapt to modern challenges.

“Excellencies, our Movement was born in the Cold War. But today’s wars are regional, cultural, and sectarian. Our Movement must adapt to these modern challenges,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported him as saying.{{more}}

“In his speech to the Non Aligned Conference in Cuba almost a year ago, then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged that the voice of the South be heard on issues such as the genocide in Darfur, the conflict in Palestine, globalization, and issues related to international migration. All of those issues have a substantial cultural and human rights component,” said Sir Louis in an address to the NAM Ministerial Meeting for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity on Tuesday in Iran.

He said: “We must begin the process of offering concrete solutions to these issues, to fashioning a more democratic and responsive United Nations, to making the Non-Aligned Movement a force for change befitting its size and influence, and to stand as the proudest example of peoples of diverse histories and cultures standing together for the benefit and advancement of mankind.”

St. Vincent and the Grenadines occupies the position of Vice President in Non-Aligned Movement, and Sir Louis presided at one of the sessions. The Minister was expected to return to the State yesterday, September 6.