Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt), July 16, 2009 (ANI)

 

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh held bilateral meetings with his Bangladeshi and Vietnamese counterparts -- Sheikh Hasina and Nguyen Tan Dung respectively on the sidelines of the XVth Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit here on Wednesday.

 

Leaders of developing states that make up NAM had earlier said the world needs a financial system that is fairer to developing states, which have suffered most from an economic crisis caused by rich countries.

 

The grouping has struggled to stay relevant after it was founded during the Cold War by countries, which did not want to be aligned either with the Soviet Union or the United States.

 

The movement now has 118 member states, with 15 observer states, representing two-thirds of the members of the United Nations and half of the world's population.

 

It has struggled to find a role since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union's collapse a year and half later.