New Delhi: India will host the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM) in New Delhi on Saturday, 31, signalling the resumption of a diplomatic platform after a gap of 10 years, the Ministry of External Affairs announced.
The first meeting was held in 2016 in Bahrain.
The Arab League is a regional grouping of 22 Arab states in the Middle East and part of Africa, which was formed in 1945 to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.
India has traditionally enjoyed close and friendly relations with the Arab League countries, and the ties between the two regions date back to ancient times when traders, scholars and diplomats would often traverse the Arabian Sea and the land routes linking India to West Asia and the Arab peninsula, transferring knowledge and merchandise.
A shared cultural heritage, through the linkages of language and religion, continues to lend energy to these historic bonds.
Today, the Arab nations are part of India’s extended neighborhood with New Delhi enjoying a close strategic partnership with some of the important countries like the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and all.
The meeting in Delhi will be co-chaired by India and the UAE. Foreign Ministers of other Arab League Member States and the Arab League Secretary General will also participate.
“This is the first India-Arab FMM to be hosted by India in New Delhi 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,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“At the first FMM, the Ministers identified five priority verticals of cooperation: 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 our existing cooperation, expanding and deepening this partnership”, the statement said.
The statement stated: “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 a MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue.”
A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed for the establishment of the Arab-India Cooperation Forum during the visit of the then Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa to India in December 2008, which was subsequently revised in 2013 in terms of structural organisation. India is an Observer to the League of Arab States.
