Al-Mikdad: Cooperation between regional blocs very important to face challenges

Riyadh, (ST) – The second joint ministerial meeting between the Arab countries and the Pacific island countries kicked off in Riyadh on Monday with the participation of Syria.

In a statement, Syria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal Al-Mikdad affirmed that cooperation and coordination between regional countries and blocs is very important to face the challenges whose negative impacts affect all countries and necessitate a coordinated response to tackle their causes.

He indicated that international solidarity and cooperation is of particular importance to developing countries in the light of the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the effects of climate change and the food and energy crises that threaten to undermine the achievements of decades of development in these countries, and hinder their ability to fulfill the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Al-Mikdad renewed Syria’s call on donor countries to fulfill their pledges to support  the ability of the most fragile developing countries, especially the countries of the Pacific islands, to face the harmful effects of climate change, to adhere to the objectives of official development assistance and to provide humanitarian aid away from selectivity and political conditionality and away from imposing illegal and immoral unilateral coercive measures that harm sustainable development plans in the targeted countries and threaten their stability and affect the living and humanitarian conditions of the peoples of these countries.

Al-Mikdad stressed the need to develop cooperation between countries of the South, including the Arab countries and the countries of the Pacific islands according to an agenda that is guided by the principles of national sovereignty of countries, equality between small and large states and non-interference in their internal affairs. He also stressed rejection of attempts to use international organizations to target specific countries in the service of interventionist agendas sponsored by well-known Western countries at the expense of international law and the interests, security and stability of the peoples of other countries.

“Our geographically far apart countries are close in facing a number of common challenges that require strengthening our joint cooperation to overcome them,” Al-Mikdad said.

He added that the dangers of desertification, drought, the decline in agricultural production, the rise in sea and ocean water levels that we are witnessing as a result of climate change, and the increase of natural disasters in our countries, the latest of which was the devastating earthquake that struck Syria on the sixth of last February, constitute common challenges facing the Arab countries and the countries of the Pacific islands, and they require enhancing cooperation and supporting development efforts and partnership between our two regions.

“Today’s meeting and the declaration to be issued by it constitute an opportunity to enhance consultation and coordination on regional and international issues of common interest and exchange support at international forums on the basis of the rules of the international law and the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations,” Al-Mikdad pointed out.

Al-Mikdad indicated that Syria and other Arab countries actively contributed to decolonization efforts and to supporting the right of peoples to self-determination and independence in various regions, and it expects that the meeting will support the United Nations resolutions to end the colonial Israeli occupation of the Arab lands, and will back the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to establish an independent state with Al-Quds as its capital, and will support Syria’s inalienable right to regain the occupied Golan and get the illegal economic measures lifted unconditionally.

Al-Mikdad thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting the second meeting of the foreign ministers of the member states of the League of Arab States and the countries of the Pacific islands, to discuss means of developing relations and exchanging views on issues of common interest. He also thanked the United Arab Emirates for hosting the first meeting.

Raghda Sawas