Cairo – Diplomats of the Arab and South American countries met yesterday (20), in Doha, Qatar, in a meeting dedicated to the preparation of the next Summit of Arab-South American Countries (Aspa), to take place next year. During the meetings, scheduled to take three days, a joint committee should be established to prepare the declaration to be approved in the summit.
"At the League of Arab States, we had already formed a group of this kind representing the Arab side. After this meeting, another, with representatives of both sides, should be formed and should have as its task not only the writing of the declaration, but also the elaboration of an action plan to be presented during the Summit in Qatar," said Ibrahim Mohieldin, head of the Latin America department at the League of Arab States.
During the meeting in Doha a technical commission should also be established for cooperation in the areas of technology and environment, and the objective should be to prepare the work minutes for the next summit of ministers of water resources and combat of desertification, scheduled to take place on November 16th and 17th, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
"The minutes of this ministerial meeting should include a plan for execution of the recommendations issued during the first meeting of ministers of environment of both groups, which took place in Nairobi, last year," said Mohieldin. According to him, drafts of this plan were elaborated by the secretariat general at the League of Arab States, but there has not yet been an occasion for them to be discussed with representatives of both regions. "During the Doha summit we will finally be able to advance in the adoption of the document by Arab and South American countries," he added.
Another important point of the meeting of high-level employees should be preparation of a meeting between businessmen, to take in the sidelines of the next Summit. "We are going to establish an economic committee to be responsible for elaboration and follow-up of questions connected to the business meeting," stated Mohieldin.
In the economic scope there should also be a meeting about the results of the last meeting of ministers in the economic area, in Rabat, Morocco, in April. "In this meeting, several sectors were defined, like energy, tourism and capital markets, where cooperation between both regions should be targeted," explained Mohieldin.
In the cultural area, in turn, questions like the contribution of each country to the Aspa Library should also be covered. "During the last meeting dedicated to the Library, in Algiers, we did not manage to reach a consensus about financial contributions of each country. We should decide whether they will be fixed contributions, as proposed by the Algerians, or voluntary, as proposed by several South American nations," finished off Mohieldin.
*Translated by Mark Ament
