Cairo – The first meeting of the work group dedicated to elaborating the text of the final declaration of the 2nd Summit of Arab-South American Countries (Aspa) took place in Cairo yesterday, at the offices of the League of Arab States. The information was disclosed to ANBA by the head of the Latin America department at the organisation, Ibrahim Mohieldin.
The group led by the Qatari deputy minister for Foreign Relations, Seif Mukadem Al Bu Enein, and by the joint secretary for Political Affairs at the League of Arab States, Ahmed Ben Helli, was also composed of ambassadors and heads of department of several ministries of Foreign Relations of Arab and South American countries.
"We had delegations from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, Ecuador, Egypt, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil," said Mohieldin. The Brazilian delegation was represented by the business attaché at the embassy of the country in Cairo, Rubem Guimarães Amaral.
According to Mohieldin, during the meeting the participants discussed a project declaration formulated by the Secretariat General of the League of Arab States. "This project includes sections dedicated to economic, social and environmental, sustainable development, science and technology and cultural cooperation. Our project also dedicated several paragraphs to the question of dialogue between cultures and cooperation in education and protection of the right to intellectual property," he said.
According to the diplomat, during the works of the group over 100 paragraphs were examined discussing a variety of themes relative to cooperation between the Arab and South American countries. "The elaboration of the document is long and requires great work. We work paragraph by paragraph. Many are rapidly approved by members of the group, others need clarification and should be discussed in other phases of our work," added Mohieldin.
The next preparatory meeting for the final declaration of the Aspa Summit should take place in Cairo on January 27th and 28th, and a third meeting of the high-level employees is scheduled for the first half of February. "We will, therefore, have as many meetings as necessary for elaboration of the document," said Mohieldin.
The project for the declaration should be presented to Arab and South American foreign ministers in a ministerial meeting in Cairo in early March and, finally, to the heads of state during the site, to take place at the Summit, in Qatar.
*Translated by Mark Ament
