New Delhi: India will host the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM) on Saturday(January 31). The meeting will be co-chaired by India and the UAE, according to a press release from the Ministry of External Affairs. Foreign Ministers of other Arab League Member States and the Arab League Secretary General will participate in the ‘2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting’. According to the release, the Foreign Ministers’ meeting is taking place after a 10-year hiatus. The first meeting was held in 2016 in Bahrain.
At the first FMM, five priority verticals of cooperation were identified: economy, energy, education, media and culture and proposed a set of activities across these verticals. The 2nd India-Arab FMM is expected to build on the existing cooperation, expanding and deepening the partnership. The India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving this partnership, which was formalised in March 2002 when India and the League of Arab States (LAS) signed an MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue.
A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed to establish the Arab-India Cooperation Forum during the visit of the then Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa to India in December 2008 and was subsequently revised in 2013 to reflect a revised structural organisation. India is an Observer to the League of Arab States, a pan Arab body with 22 member States. As per the release, this is the first India-Arab FMM to be hosted by India and will see participation by all 22 Arab countries by Foreign Ministers, other Ministers, Ministers of State, and other Senior Officials and the Arab League.
Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal welcomed the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Sudan and also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, on January 29, Thursday for the second India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. In a post on X, he said, “Delighted to welcome H.E. Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Republic of Sudan, for the second India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The visit will further strengthen people-to-people ties between India and Sudan”.
In another post, Jaiswal said, “Warm welcome to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, H.E. @VarsenAghShahin, as she arrives in India to participate in the 2nd India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The visit reaffirms India’s partnership with the people of Palestine and the Arab world”.
(With Inputs from ANI)
