United Nations General Assembly president Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki is in Manila to attend the three-day Special Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development, the biggest intergovernmental meeting in recent years and the first of its kind to be held in Asia.

The Philippines will host the SNAMMM from March 16 to 18 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

A one-day Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) will also be held on March 16 to finalize the conference’s draft outcome document, to be called the Manila Declaration on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development, and the Program of Action on the Active Promotion of Dialogue, in Particular Interfaith Dialogue, to Strengthen a Culture of Peace and Development.

Treki was expected at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 11:05 p.m. Sunday.

Treki, president of the UN General Assembly’s 64th Session, will be the guest of honor during the SNAMMM, which he would address on Wednesday, March 18.

About 50 ministers and deputy ministers are likewise expected to attend the event, which aims to promote global peace through interfaith dialogue.

"The presence of the President of the UN General Assembly and representatives from over a hundred countries in Manila is a clear indication that the international community recognizes the connection
between interfaith cooperation and dialogue and peace and development," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

Treki is a Libyan diplomat who was sworn in as president of the UN General Assembly on September 15, 2009. The General Assembly oversees the budget of the UN, appoints non-permanent members to the Security Council and makes recommendations to General Assembly resolutions.

Treki is Libya’s former foreign minister and now Libya's Minister of African Union Affairs.

According to the DFA, Treki will be attending a dinner hosted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Malacañang and will have a bilateral meeting with Secretary Romulo.

He will also lay a wreath at the Rizal Monument and meet former President Fidel Ramos and Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri during his stay here.

DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, the NAM National Organizing Committee (NOC) secretary general, said a total of 123 delegates have confirmed attendance to the conference.

He said 83 NAM member countries are attending the SNAMMM, with 50 countries sending Foreign Ministers and Deputy Ministers. There will also be 12 observer countries, three observer organizations, 23 guest countries, and two guest organizations.

The NAM, of which the Philippines is one of the 118 member states, is an international organization that aims to ensure “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."

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and comprise 55 percent of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the third world. It was founded in April 1955.

Aside from the 118 member countries, there are currently 18 NAM observer countries and 10 NAM observer organizations.