Support Full Membership Of Palestine At The United Nations At The GNB Summit, Indonesia Urges GNB To Unite

JAKARTA - Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala Nugraha Mansury at the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (GNB) stated that Indonesia fully supports Palestinian membership in the United Nations (UN).

When delivering Indonesia's national statement at a conference that took place in Kamala, Uganda, on Saturday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pahala underlined the spirit of the Asia-African Conference in Bandung emphasizing the importance of joint struggle with developing countries to realize independence, justice, equality, and development.

"This spirit must always be an inspiration for NAM in facing various global challenges, especially in realizing the independence of the Palestinian people and maintaining the interests of developing countries", said Pahala as conveyed in a written statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported by ANTARA, Saturday, January 20.

Specifically regarding the Palestinian issue, Indonesia urged the GNB to unite, press for a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as encourage the peace process and seek full Palestinian membership at the United Nations.

Currently, there are five members of the NAM who are members of the UN Security Council. They are expected to help voice positions with NAM regarding Palestine.

In addition to the main meeting of the GNB Summit, Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala also met with the Palestinian Foreign Minister and South African Foreign Minister regarding Palestinian issues.

Pahala emphasized Indonesia's support for the struggle of the Palestinian people to achieve long-term solutions and independence. Indonesia also supports South Africa's lawsuit against Israel at the International Court (ICJ).

Furthermore, Indonesia encourages NAM to be part of a global solution and consistently prioritize the interests of developing countries, especially in realizing the right to development.

"We must guarantee the rights of developing countries to carry out development in accordance with their national priorities, for example through industrial downstreaming", said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala emphasized that NAM is a very large political force.

The current number of NAM members is 121 countries, with a population of around 55 percent of the world's population. With this much power, NAM must be able to change world governance to better reflect justice for all", he said.

In addition to delivering Indonesia's national statement, on the sidelines of the summit, Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala also held a number of bilateral meetings with a number of other countries, namely with the Ministers of State of Uganda, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, the Minister of Belarus, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, the Deputy for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, the Deputy for Foreign Minister of Venezuela, and the Secretary General of UNCTAD.

The 19th GNB Summit was held under the Chairmanship of Uganda with the theme "Depening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence".

The GNB Summit in Uganda was attended by 121 member countries as well as a number of international countries and observers. The meeting agreed on four documents, one of which was the GNB Political Declaration which encouraged the realization of peace in Palestine.