Indonesia FM to Non-Aligned Movement: ‘We All Still Owe Palestine Independence’

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi brought up the Palestinian struggle to gain independence during the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in the Serbian capital, Belgrade on Monday, October 11.

Retno said that to free the Palestinian people is part of the values and principles of respect for justice.

“All the Non-Aligned Movement countries still owe the Palestinian people independence,” she said in a virtual statement.

She is of the view that the results of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, or the 10 Principles of Bandung gave a mandate to the NAM countries to support the Palestinian people. The Asia-Africa Conference was the beginning of the NAM.

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“The 10 Principles of Bandung gives us the mandate to support Palestine in its struggle for justice,” said the minister.

At the meeting, she quoted what the first Indonesian President Soekarno, who is also one of the founders of the NAM, had once said, “We must not forget the history.”

With that, Retno called for support for Indonesia’s initiative to nominate the archives of the first NAM in Belgrade as the UNESCO Memory of the World.

She hoped that all NAM countries would make the aspirations and principles of NAM useful for the people to build a stronger world.

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“The history of NAM is important as a reminder for us of the values, aspirations, and principles of NAM,” she said.

The NAM Summit was officiated by Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on Monday.

The two-day summit marks the 60th anniversary of the first conference held in 1961, also in Belgrade, in former Yugoslavia. High-level delegations from more than 105 countries are attending the event.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) comprises 120 developing countries, representing the interests of developing nations across the cultural, political, and economic sectors.

(Writer: Rahel Narda Chaterine | Editor: Bayu Galih)

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/10/12/10313821/menlu-retno-ingatkan-semua-negara-gnb-masih-berutang-kemerdekaan-palestina.