At this meeting, NAM member countries agreed to admit Argentina and the World Peace Council as new members of the group of observing countries and organisations, increasing the total number of NAM observers to 16 countries and nine organisations.

The 15 th NAM Summit adopted a Final Document that touches upon orientations for addressing current complicated international issues.

The document affirms the need to heighten NAM ’s role and pro-activeness in contributing to the world’s peace and security while committing to persistently upholding the movement’s fundamental principles.

It also underlines the determination to protect the interests of developing countries and extend solidarity, in words and deeds, toward NAM members that are under threat of the use of force and aggression, or fall victim to unilateral pressure from outside.

On socio-economic issues, the document maps out specific cooperation measures at regional and global levels through the reinforcement of internal strengths, cooperation at regional and international forums, expansion of social exchanges and cultural dialogues on civilisation and beliefs.

It reiterates support for human rights as universal values of humankind and expresses the view that there is no single model of democracy for all nations, while protesting against the use of democratic and human rights issues as a political tool to interfere with the internal affairs of a country.

According to the document, over the past three years, the position as well as the influence of the NAM has been heightened on many important international issues and in the process of formulating mechanisms and specific coordination methods in the aforementioned areas at international forums.

The NAM Summit also adopted the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration to affirm the NAM’s positive viewpoints on current major issues, a special declaration calling for putting an end to the US’s economic, trade and financial embargoes against Cuba, a declaration on Palestine and another on declaring July 18 as Nelson Mandela International Day in honour of his contributions to the fight against racial discrimination and protection of humane values.

The Vietnamese delegation to the 15 th NAM , led by President Nguyen Minh Triet, reflected Vietnam ’s commitment to working for the NAM ’s common cause.

Vietnamese officials contributed views to issues of concern discussed at the event as well as the content of declarations adopted there, and shared experiences with officials from other NAM member states.

The Final Document praises Vietnam , in the capacity as the United Nations Security Council’s Chair in July 2008, for taking the initiative to reform the methodology the UN Security Council uses to make its annual reports and for helping speed up the adoption of a working programme for the disarmament conference after experiencing a deadlock for years.

Later in the day, President Triet and his entourage left Sharm El-Sheikh for home./.