Speeches / Statements

Intervention by EAM at the Ministerial Meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, July 13, 2009

13/07/2009

Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for this opportunity to address this important committee. Although this is the first occasion I do so, I carry with me the happy thought that we began our work following the decision to constitute the Committee on Palestine at the 7th Summit of the Non-aligned Movement held in New Delhi in 1983.

When the Committee last met in Havana in April 2009, India renewed its commitment to the just cause of the Palestinian people and, indeed, to seeking progress in all tracks of the Middle East Peace Process.

The world has witnessed the Israeli incursion into Gaza, with all its attendant casualties, mainly of innocent civilians, including a large number of children and women, destruction of civilian infrastructure and further misery for a population already under occupation.

India condemned those developments. We are disappointed, also, at the lack of progress in the peace process and the encouragement that stalemate provides to the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, including in Jerusalem.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to express our appreciation to the Government of Egypt for inviting India to the donors’ conference held here in Sharm el-Sheikh on 2 March, 2009. I am pleased to announce that in keeping with India’s response at Tehran to the presentation of the distinguished Foreign Minister of Palestine to this Committee, regarding the need for additional budgetary support, which were taken forward in discussions between His Excellency, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in October, 2008, India has since concretized its pledges. In this regard, a sum equivalent to $ 10 million was transferred in March, 2009 as budget support to the Palestine National Authority.

I am equally pleased that the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi built as a gift of the Government and people of India is almost complete.

These exemplify India’s continuing commitment to Palestine.

Mr. Chairman, I avail myself of his opportunity to renew India’s commitment to the work of this Committee, confident that under your guidance, we would contribute in ever-larger measure to the work of the Movement in support of the Palestinian people.

Thank you.