External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday met Palestine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Varsen Aghabekian here and discussed development cooperation, the Gaza Peace plan, and regional developments.
“Glad to meet Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of State of Palestine Varsen Aghabekian. Exchanged views on the Gaza Peace Plan and regional developments. Reviewed our development cooperation and agreed on initiatives to take it forward”, EAM Jaishankar wrote in a post on X after the meeting.
Aghabekian arrived in New Delhi on Thursday to attend the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting.
Upon her arrival, Aghabekian, in a post on X, wrote: “Arrived in India to participate in the 2nd India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. This visit reaffirms the strong partnership between Palestine and India, and our shared commitment to cooperation with the Arab world.”
India is set to host the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM) on January 31. The meeting, being hosted by India and the United Arab Emirates, will have the participation of Foreign Ministers of other Arab League member states and the Arab League Secretary General, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The second India-Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting is expected to build on existing cooperation and expand the partnership. It will be preceded by the 4th India-Arab Senior Officials’ Meeting.
The Foreign Ministers’ meeting is taking place after 10 years, as the first meeting was held in Bahrain in 2016. During the first Foreign Ministers Meeting, the leaders identified five priority verticals of cooperation – economy, energy, education, media, and culture and proposed a set of activities across these verticals.
“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,” the MEA stated.
“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, a pan Arab body with 22 member States,” it added.
–IANS
