Iranian VP Meets Ecuadorian President
(FNA)- Iranian Vice-President Ali Saeedlou met with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in Quito and invited him to the upcoming heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.
Saeedlou said Wednesday that he delivered an invitation from Iran's president to his Ecuadoran counterpart to visit Tehran for attending the NAM summit in August.
He told reporters after his meeting with President Correa at the Carondelet presidential palace that the two also talked about increasing trade and technology exchanges.
The main purpose of the August 30-31 summit for all countries "that are not aligned with the powerful nations, is to unite and present one solid and unanimous voice at an international level on how to obtain peace, and create a more democratic and just world," Saeedlou told reporters.
Iran has the rotating presidency of the Movement for three years.
NAM, which has 118 member states, is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.
NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.
The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former President of Egypt Jamal Abdul Nasser, and former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.
It was founded in April 1955 and has 118 members. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics."