Muslim Nations Summit Opens with Calls for Unity

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Muslim Nations Summit Opens with Calls for Unity

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

AFP - May 13, 2006
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060513094018.2hqbb6k0.html

Summit of large Muslim countries opens with calls for unity

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) - A summit of eight large Muslim countries opened
on Indonesia's resort island of Bali with calls by Indonesian and Iranian
leaders for unity and greater cooperation.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the members of the
Developing 8 (D-8) to address the global oil crisis by working together to
develop alternative energy sources, intensify cooperation to combat
pandemics and promote dialogue among civilisations.

"We must be able to embrace modernity by becoming forward-looking, by
becoming knowledge-driven, by advancing a culture of excellence," Yudhoyono
said in his speech opening the summit Saturday.

Yudhoyono said the D-8 nations wanted to achieve progress "through peace not
war, dialogue not confrontation, cooperation not exploitation, justice not
double standards, equality not discrimination, democracy not oppression."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, handing over the grouping's
chairmanship to Yudhoyono, urged D-8 member states to work together for the
welfare of the Islamic world and the entire world community.

"We are all members of the Muslim ummah (community) and the human society as
a whole and thus have shared interests and concerns," he said.

Greater cooperation "will bring about greater strength, dignity and progress
to the Muslim ummah... which can be used in the service of international
peace and security and also the welfare of the entire international
community," he said.

"We can offer a good model of cooperation and understanding based on justice
to the world," he said. "In this context the Islamic Republic of Iran feels
obliged to mobilise all its means and possibilities to further strengthen
D-8."

D-8 groups Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan
and Turkey. The forum focuses on commercial and economic cooperation among
member states, including in the areas of science, industry and investment.

Looming over the talks however was diplomatic tension over Iran's refusal to
stop enriching uranium to make nuclear fuel, though the normally fiery
Ahmadinejad did not refer to the issue during his opening remarks.

Iran says its nuclear activities are solely aimed at generating electricity
but Western countries suspect it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Leaders or their representatives at the summit later signed two agreements
on preferential trade among the members as well as assistance on customs
matters, but details were not immediately made available.

A press conference was slated for late Saturday.

During the one-day talks, the leaders were in particular slated to discuss
ways to avert a global energy crisis by developing renewable and alternative
energy sources including nuclear power, efforts to combat problems such as
AIDS and bird flu and address the debt problems of developing countries.

A draft declaration expressed concern about the crisis sparked by the
publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad by a Danish newspaper last
year which set off a wave of worldwide violence.

The D-8 held its first summit in 1997 and last met in Tehran in February
2004. The eight nations have a population of about 500 million people
combined.

©AFP 2006


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