A national commemorative event co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) held in Colombo today (21) under the theme "NAM - Half a Century of Achievement : Our Common Vision for the Future".

To mark the occasion, a special Commemorative Stamp and First Day Cover issued by the Sri Lanka Philatelic Bureau at Prime Minister's Office today in the presence of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne.

Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation was the Chief Guest of the event.
"Sri Lanka is very closely associated with the NAM. Sri Lanka hosted the 5th NAM Summit in 1976, under the Chairmanship of the World's first woman Prime Minister, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike", said the Minister addressing the event.

NAM is a grate creativity of our leaders at that time, the Minister Amunugama said.

Time has come for NAM to rethink, re-strategise and replace the concepts of the NAM and entre into the future strongly, he added.

NAM is an inter-governmental organization of States comprised of over 120 members and observer countries. Sri Lanka was among the 28 founding members represented at the first NAM Summit held in Belgrade in September 1961.