MANILA, March 16 (NNN-PNA) — Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda F. Basilio opened Tuesday the preparatory senior officials? meeting (SOM) of the Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development (SNAMMM).

Basilio accepted the chairmanship of the SOM from Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz of the Arab Republic of Egypt, who is the representative of the chairman of the NAM.

She welcomed delegates to the SNAMMM and noted the good attendance of NAM member states from the four continents where all NAM members come namely, Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Over 120 delegates from NAM?s 118-member states are participating in the SNAMMM in Manila which will last until March 18.

?Turning now to the work before us, I am happy to note that the Coordinating Bureau of the NAM has already done a lot of spadework in New York, thus, making the work of the Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting here in Manila much easier to accomplish,? she said.

The NAM senior officials are expected to consider the recommendations of the NAM-COB, approve the provisional agenda for the two-day SNAMMM, and consider the draft final document namely, the Manila Declaration on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development and the Programme of Action on the Active Promotion of Dialogue, in Particular Interfaith Dialogue, to Strengthen a Culture of Peace and Development. — NNN-PNA

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