Venkaiah Naidu meets Afghan Prez Ashraf Ghani during NAM summit

Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministerial Meeting. The meeting was conducted in Baku on Friday. Naidu and Jaishankar have traveled to Baku to attend the 18th summit of the NAM which is said to be attended by as many as two dozen heads of state and governments from 120 countries across the world. The summit that kicked off on Friday is based on the theme ‘Upholding Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of the contemporary world’. India is a founding member of NAM, which is said to be the second-largest gathering of the world leaders after the United Nations.  

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Vice President meets several world leaders

Naidu on Friday met several of world leaders, including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In his address at the summit, the Vice President called on all NAM countries to come together to build a common front against terror in all its forms as there was no justification for violent extremist ideologies and terrorist actions that maim and murders innocents. Naidu also hit out at Pakistan for misusing the summit to justify Islamabad's longstanding policy of conducting cross-border terrorism against its neighbors.

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Addressed Indian Diaspora ahead of the summit

Ahead of the NAM summit, the Vice President also addressed the Indian diaspora in Azerbaijan. While addressing the community, Naidu gave a detailed account of the recent developments that have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of article 370 and also explained the idea behind the abrogation. "It is a step to extend to the people of the state all the benefits being enjoyed by the other Indian citizens. It is a step that was supported by an overwhelming majority in Parliament. It is a step towards development," Naidu said.

He also insisted on the Indian diaspora to understand the motive behind the abrogation and note the issue in the correct perspective by disregarding the distorted versions by a certain section of the media.

(With ANI Inputs)

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