Asia-Pacific

Philippines to host special Non-Aligned Movement meeting

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-11 18:56

MANILA: The Philippines will host a special Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meeting on interfaith dialogue and cooperation for peace and development on March 16-18, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced on Monday.

The meeting will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila. A one-day Senior Officials' Meeting will be held on March 16 to finalize the conference's draft outcome document.

"The Philippines considers that intercultural and interfaith dialogue policy framework paves the way for the coming together of people of different cultures and faiths to build, through dialogue and action, a shared environment of peace and security based on mutual understanding, trust and respect," a Department of Foreign Affairs statement said.

Originally scheduled for December 1-3, 2009, the meeting was postponed to a later date so that the Philippine government could concentrate on relief and rehabilitation efforts in the wake of two back to back typhoons that struck the country starting August last year.

More than 40 NAM countries have already confirmed their participation in the conference. The Philippines expects more countries to send high-level delegations to the Ministerial Meeting in view of the number of inquiries and feedback it has been receiving.