Special Envoy of President Maithripala Sirisena, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Skills Development and Vocational Training will lead the Sri Lanka delegation to the 17^th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) being held from 13-18 September in Margarita Island, Venezuela. In addition to the Summit, Minister Samarasinghe will also represent Sri Lanka at the Ministerial segment to be held from 15-16 September 2016. 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 2016.

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 5^th NAM Summit in Colombo in 1976. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo 

14 September 2016