Philippine : Binay Bats For Peaceful Settlement

Major News of <Manila Bulletin> :  Binay Bats For Peaceful Settlement

By JC BELLO RUIZ August 28, 2012, 10:03pm

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Jejomar C. Binay will push for the peaceful settlement of all territorial disputes and respect for migrant rights when he attends the 16th Non-Aligned Movement Summit (NAM Summit) in Iran.

Binay left Tuesday evening for Tehran to represent President Benigno S. Aquino III in the NAM Summit to be attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other representatives from all NAM member-states as well as associated observer countries.

“Given our own peculiar problems in our area at this time, I would welcome an opportunity to be able to invite the conference to help all countries involved in territorial disputes to adhere strictly to the peaceful settlement of all disputes,” Binay said in his departure statement.

“I hope to participate in the general debate and convey to the summit our special concerns, and seek the support of the movement’s entire membership in addressing those concerns,” said Binay who took the Emirates EK 333 flight at 6:25 p.m.

The Philippines is one of the claimants of the disputed Spratly Islands.

The Vice President said that he cannot anticipate what topics will dominate the agenda of the summit since the outcome document is still being worked on by the appropriate body of officials.

However, Binay said he expects the summit to delve on peacekeeping efforts and territorial sovereignty.

“It is safe to assume they will hew closely to the principles that have animated our movement from the beginning namely, mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in domestic affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence,” he said.

He said the Philippines already made its own “modest contribution” to the activities of NAM especially in the area of migration.

“Next month, we shall be hosting a workshop titled International Migrant Domestic Care Workers at the Interface of Migration and Development Action to Expand Global Practice in the Asian Region,” Binay said.

“This workshop seeks to advance the discussion on ILO convention 189 and to contribute to the dialogue for roundtable 3.3 on ‘Protecting migrant domestic workers: Enhancing their human development potential’ under the 2012 Global Forum on Migration and Development. We expect to draw in participants to this workshop from NAM,” he added.

While in Iran, the Vice President will also visit the Philippine embassy’s welfare center and hold a dialogue with the Filipino community in Iran.

He is also expected to attend the official lunch to be hosted by his Excellency Mahmood Ahmadi Nejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for summit delegates.

Founded in September 1961, NAM is comprised of 120 countries, apart from 19 observer countries and 10 observer organizations.

NAM focuses on striving for the interests of developing countries all over the world, and now represents nearly two-thirds of UN member-countries and comprises 55 percent of the world population, stated its website. 

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