Meaningful Role Urged for Nonaligned Movement

A Nonaligned Movement foreign ministers’ conference opened in Nicosia on Wednesday with calls on the movement to carve out a meaningful role in global affairs.

Cypriot President George Vassiliou launched the four-day ministers’ meeting by throwing down a challenge to increase the movement’s effectiveness and seize the initiative.

“The tasks facing us today can be more effectively met if our countries, instead of following developments, take the initiative and become masters of their own destinies,” he said.

His criticism of the 27-year-old movement, which represents 2 billion people, was echoed by other speakers who emphasized the need to act to meet international developments.

“A great deal hangs on our success or failure,” Vassiliou told the 59 foreign ministers and 89 delegations in the Nicosia conference chamber.

The conference will chart the movement’s course until its 1989 summit and decide which nation is to take over the prestigious chairmanship from Zimbabwe.

Latin American and Caribbean foreign ministers agreed Wednesday to propose Nicaragua for the leadership, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Diego Cordovez told reporters.

Indonesia and Nicaragua are the only official candidates while Kuwait, Peru and Cyprus have emerged as possible compromises.

Vassiliou and most speakers stressed opportunities presented by superpower disarmament and peace moves in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Cambodia, Central America, Namibia, Angola, Western Sahara and Cyprus.

“The greatest challenge . . . is the creation of a peaceful world free from fear of war,” the Cypriot president said.