GUL TO ATTEND NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT SUMMIT IN EGYPT

A press relase issued Monday by the Presidency Press Office said President Gul would be Turkey's first president to attend a NAM meeting.
It said Turkey which has been recently following NAM's major events with guest country status attached importance to NAM as a leading organization in the world which followed the "active multilateralism approach" also embraced by Turkey.
Turkey was represented at the 14th Summit in Cuba by the then Deputy Premier Abdullatif Sener.
The statement said the summit was a good opportunity for Turkey to carry forward its policy of enhancing its ties and cooperation with African, Latin American and Far Eastern countries.

-NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT-

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization of countries considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
It was founded in April 1955; as of 2009, it has 118 members.
The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics."
NAM represents nearly two-thirds of the United Nations's members and comprise 55 percent of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the third world.