Turkish President Abdullah Gul (L) receives Iran's Vice President for International Affairs Ali Saeedlou in Ankara on June 29, 2012.
Iran has invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to take part in the upcoming summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.
During a meeting in Ankara on Friday, Iran's Vice President for International Affairs Ali Saeedlou extended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s invitation to his Turkish counterpart to attend the NAM summit due this summer in the Iranian capital.
Iran will host the 16th summit of the NAM member states between August 26 and 31.
The Islamic Republic will also assume the rotating presidency of the movement for three years during the Tehran summit.
NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 17 observer countries, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
The organization was founded in the former Yugoslavia in 1961. Member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the UN members and contain 55% of the world population.
NAM's purpose, as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries.”
MP/HGH/SS
