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President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda’s selection to host the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Heads of State Summit in 2024 was due to its neutrality on international issues.
“Uganda was selected to host and the reason to select Uganda was because of our independent position in the world. We didn’t apply,” H.E Museveni said.
The President who was addressing the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Parliamentary Regional Whips at State House Entebbe yesterday, noted that the upcoming meeting is bigger than the African Union, one of the biggest meetings Uganda has ever held in 2010 and the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, adding that it’s an opportunity to market Uganda and boost tourism.
“It will be very easy for us to talk about business and trade with them. When we held the Commonwealth meeting our tourist arrivals rose since then when the world heard that Africa had hosted the Commonwealth successfully,” H.E Museveni further said, adding that apart from the NAM meeting, Uganda will also host the high-level international Summit of the Group of Seventy-Seven Plus China (G77 + China).
Uganda will host the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) under the theme “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence”. During the summit, which will be held at Speke Resort Munyonyo in January 2024, President Museveni will take over the chairmanship of the organization from the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and his leadership will last up to 2026.
The NAM is an international organisation consisting of 120 countries as of April 2018 comprising 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 2 from Europe (Belarus, Azerbaijan) that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc and is the largest grouping of Member states worldwide after the United Nations (UN).
Uganda was endorsed to officially Chair the organisation on behalf of Africa for the period from 2023 – 2026.
The meeting at State House was attended by among others; the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja, the Government Chief Whip Hon. Hamson Obua and the Attorney General Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka.