In addition to the Summit, Minister Samarasinghe will also represent Sri Lanka at the Ministerial segment to be held from 15-16 September. The Sri Lanka Ambassador to Venezuela, resident in Havana and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated at the preceding Senior Officials Meeting from 13-14 September.

At the Summit, Venezuela will take over the Chairmanship of the Movement from Iran, the outgoing Chair and the Summit is being held under the theme “Peace, Sovereignty and Solidarity for Development”.  The Summit is expected to deliberate on issues such as current political developments, UN reform, terrorism, threats to international peace & security, UN peacekeeping, sustainable development, climate change, socio- economic development, south-south cooperation, refugees and migrants, and disarmament.

The Non-Aligned Movement consists of 120 countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and was formed in 1961. Sri Lanka is a founder member of the Movement and hosted the 5th NAM Summit in Colombo in 1976.