19th NAM Summit: Museveni's interactions with world leaders

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It has been a super-busy week of diplomatic engagements for Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni — and as you would imagine, it has yet to end.

Once the curtains have finally drawn on the two major summits that his nation is hosting back-to-back, the Ugandan leader will concurrently serve as the chair of both the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Group of 77 and China coalition.

He has already taken on the NAM mantle from Azerbaijan for the next three years and is next set to also assume the year-long chairmanship of the G77+China during the Third South Summit.

As the 19th NAM Summit — which got under way on Monday in Kampala — concludes on Saturday, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in attendance, the Third South Summit will begin in earnest on Sunday.

'Great news!'

Meanwhile, for any country's head of state or government, hosting scores of global leaders at the same time means plenty of one-on-one side meetings with them and their respective delegations. So has been the case for President Museveni.

On Saturday, he was involved in a series of meetings with various leaders.

One of them was with Mohamed Yunus al-Menfi, the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya.

"We discussed the political and security situation in Libya and the strengthening of our relations," he posted on social media X, where he has a following of 3.2 million.

"I am fully supportive of this.  It is great news to hear that under his leadership, they are committed to restoring peace, unity, and development in Libya. I wish them  good  luck!"

Museveni also met with Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"We discussed co-operation in energy, tourism, ICT, and agriculture, focusing on tea. I extend a warm welcome to him in Uganda," Museveni posted on X, along with pictures of their meeting.

▪️  UN chief Antonio Guterres attends Kampala summits

The same morning, the Ugandan President also met Liu Guozhong, President Xi Jinping's Special Representative.

Liu is also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee of China, and the Vice Premier of the State Council.

▪️  19th NAM Summit opens in Kampala

"We have a long-standing relationship with China, and we are happy with both their actions and how they conduct themselves," posted Museveni on X.

"Now, what we need to emphasize is market access. China should open its market to African products, which will benefit Africa and result in a win-win situation for both parties, given that Africa already imports a lot from China."

▪️  Day 2 of NAM Summit in Kampala

On Friday evening, Museveni held bilateral meetings with Ethiopia's Prime Minister  Abey Ahmed as well as with President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana.

He later commented on how both meetings went: "We had positive discussions of mutual interest."

▪️  Day 3 of NAM Summit in Kampala
▪️  Day 4 of NAM Summit in Kampala

Later after those engagements, President Museveni and the First Lady, Janet Museveni, hosted guests of the NAM at a state dinner in  Munyonyo.

▪️  Museveni takes over chairmanship of NAM

💬  Museveni's firm tone in inaugural address

Meanwhile, President Museveni took pleasure in welcoming all his high-profile guests, the heads of states and governments and the heads of delegations of the NAM to Uganda for this year's summit.  

He is now charged with leading a grouping of countries that accounts for 4.46 billion people of the world — that is, the Non-Aligned Movement.

The NAM was a creation six decades of four leaders that Museveni described as "our far-sighted elders": Sukarno of Indonesia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Chou En-Lai of China.

▪️  Museveni's inaugural speech as NAM chair - in full

After being elected as the new NAM chair on Friday, Museveni was firm in his inaugural address to member states, making sure to call out forces that impose "your narrow uni-ideological orientation" on other nations.

"The strength of the NAM should be used to exercise considerable influence, particularly at the United Nations, for the effective transformative process for a better common future," Museveni said in his inaugural address as NAM chair.

"We are, therefore, not impressed and cannot be part of the morbid bigotry of uni-ideological thinking of this or that type. The universe has been here for the last 30 billion years and the human society has been here for the last four-and-a-half million years. 

"You, therefore, should not have the audacity to impose on the society you live in, let alone the world, your narrow uni-ideological orientation.

"In the negotiations for the Pact of the Future, the outcome document of the upcoming United Nations Summit of the Future to be held in New York in September, 2024, we should clearly define priorities that favour developing countries by maintaining unity, solidarity and collective coordination among our member states, in line with the Bandung principles.

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The Bandung principles

The Bandung Conference of April 1955 was a vital step towards the eventual creation of the NAM.

The week-long conference that took place in the Indonesian city of Bandung was a meeting of Asian and African states (most of which were newly independent) and was intended to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural co-operaiton and oppose colonialism or neocolonialism.

📸 In the picture below, Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-Lai addresses the audience during the Bandung conference.

In the final communiqué of the conference, a 10-point declaration "on promotion of world peace and co-operation" was adopted unanimously as item G.

The declaration was called Bandung's Ten Principles or Bandung Spirit or Bandung Ddeclaration.

NAM builds its work on those 10 Bandung principles, which are:

1. Respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations

2. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations

3. Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations, large and small

4. Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country

5. Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself, singly or collectively, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations

6. a) Abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defence to serve any particular interests of the big powers
    b) Abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries

7. Refraining form acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country

8. Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties' own choice, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations

9. Promotion of mutual interests and co-operation

10. Respect for justice and international obligations

📸 The picture below from the 1955 Bandung conference shows Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan delegates participating in that meeting.