15 July : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday to attend the 15th NAM Summit, where global economic downturn and terrorism are expected to top the agenda.
Dr Singh is in Egypt on the final leg of his two-nation five-day tour that took him to France first.In Paris, the Prime Minister attended the grand celebrations on the French National Day as the Chief Guest of Honour and met President Nicolas Sarkozy during a working lunch.
On the sidelines of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday morning.Ahead of the Singh-Gilani meeting, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that India would like a “visible response” from Pakistan whose commitment is to bring to justice the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks and the earlier attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who is accompanying Dr Singh, will also meet his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir and prepare the basis for the Prime Ministers’ meeting.
At the two-day 15th NAM Summit, the grouping of developing nations will discuss ways to address challenges posed by the economic crisis and pitch for reform of the global financial institutions like IMF and World Bank.The NAM will also discuss challenges like terrorism, climate change and food security.
Dr Singh will address the plenary session of the NAM Summit on Wednesday and hold bilateral talks with his Bangaldeshi counterpart Shiekh Hasina and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.