Ashraf AboArafe
Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States (LAS), participated today, Monday 6/12/2023, in Riyadh, in the second ministerial meeting with the Pacific Islands Group, with the generous hosting of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and under the chairmanship of His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud. Kingdom’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Jamal Rushdi, the official spokesman for the Secretary-General, stated that Aboul Gheit delivered a speech at the opening session, during which he stressed the importance of this meeting, which Abu Dhabi had hosted its first session 13 years ago, stressing the importance of creating common ground and finding points of convergence for the common interests of the two sides in various political and economic fields. and cultural.
The spokesman stated that Aboul Gheit also referred in his speech to the geostrategic importance of both sides, and that the Arab side is ready to cooperate with the Pacific side in various areas of common interest, including issues of climate change, response to epidemics, maritime security and environmental protection, as well as health security.
On the other hand, Aboul Gheit’s speech included highlighting the importance of the Palestinian issue, which is at the top of the agenda of Arab diplomacy, expressing the Arab side’s aspiration for the Pacific island countries to understand the Arab endeavor to mobilize recognition of the Palestinian state, calling on these countries to support Arab efforts to end the longest occupation regime on face of the earth.
The spokesman added that Aboul Gheit expressed at the end of his speech his aspiration for the meeting to contribute to laying the foundation stone for Arab-Pacific cooperation within an institutional framework that guarantees sustainability and development through the conclusion of a document establishing an Arab-Pacific cooperation forum in various fields of interest to both sides.
It should be noted that the Pacific island states consist of 14 countries, namely the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
