The 13th NAM summit, which concluded in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday night, endorsed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, which said the NAM must uphold multilateralism as a vehicle to protect the interests of the member-countries and work to ensure that views of the NAM are taken into account before key decisions are made.

The members felt that the NAM must continue to remain strong, cohesive and resilient and the continued relevance of the NAM will depend, in large measure, on the unity and solidarity of its members as well as its ability to adapt to changes.

Agreeing that the NAM should play a pro-active role in international decision-making, the declaration said that the member countries have to work towards bringing about a multi-polar world order.

In his closing remarks, Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir said, "The world we live in today is uni-polar in character and is vastly different from the multi-polar world of the founders of our Movement."

"It is clear that relevance of the NAM should no longer be questioned. Indeed, the Movement has become even more relevant today, for the protection and promotion of the interests of the countries of the south," he said.

He said, "It is also clear that the well-being of the world will be better served by a strong multilateral system, revolving around a United Nations that is more representative and democratic, than a unilateral system based on the dominance of one power, however benign that power may be."

The Malaysian leader cited three new challenges facing the NAM -- the threat of international terrorism, globalization and the revolution in the information and communications technology.

In the face of all these challenges, he said, "it is clear in our interest to strengthen our unity and cohesion and speak with one voice on issues of vital importance to us."

"We must strengthen our unity and solidarity, and expand our cooperation in the political, economic, social, cultural, scientific and technical fields," he added.

He indicated, "The declaration constitutes an important blue-print for our collective action. It provides clear guiding principles and practical action plans, which will assist us in charting our course in the coming years."

"We hope that with its revitalization, our Movement would be more pro-active and responsive to the concerns and needs of member states," he added.

The NAM had its origins at the height of the Cold War in the mid-1950s during the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, Indonesia.

It was a convergence of nations that did not want to owe allegiance to either the US- led Western Bloc or the then Soviet Union-dominated Eastern Bloc and addressed the issue of economic development and co-operation among member countries.

From 25 founding members at its first summit in 1961, the NAM has since grown to 114 members from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and Caribbean regions. Timor Leste and St Vincent and Grenadines were officially accepted as new members of the Movement at this summit.

The Cold War has ended but world peace is still threatened by extremism, discord, aggressive nationalist and terrorism.

The dynamics of globalization have produced a whole set of new problems which the NAM must take note of. However, the trends are not encouraging. While the developing world is largely supportive of mutually beneficial global integration, it has major concerns which are not being addressed in the new global agenda.

There has not been parallel progress in the economic field. Gaps, disparities and injustice still exist in the relationship between developed and developing countries.

The global economy is erratic and still plagued with uncertainty and uneven growth. The developed countries are still the front runners while developing countries still lag behind.

Political analysts here said that as the largest grouping of developing countries outside of the United nations, the NAM will take the new agenda upon itself to deal with the challenges facing it.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2003)