Cairo \u2013 The relations between Arab and South American countries were discussed at the 132nd session of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers, which ended last Thursday (10th) at the headquarters of the League of Arab States, in Cairo. \u201cCooperation between Arab and South American countries is progressing towards greater development. This may be perceived on every level,\u201d stated the joint secretary general of the League for political affairs, Ahmed BenHelli, at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have a meeting of Arab and South American foreign ministers in New York, on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations, as proposed by Brazil,\u201d declared BenHelli. According to him, during the meeting, the two blocs should evaluate their cooperation efforts and seek ways to strengthen them further and further. \u201cDuring the meeting, the foreign ministers should also coordinate their positions regarding the various issues tackled by the UN\u2019s General Assembly and seek support to the causes championed by countries in each group,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to him, greater coordination in matters of international politics has become a priority for the two groups, especially on the Arab side. \u201cAnother priority for the two groups is to even further increase economic and trade exchange, which is already satisfactory, but which the Arabs believe may increase much more,\u201d said BenHelli.<\/p>\n
The joint secretary general claimed, for instance, that the volume of trade between Arabs and South Americans is now almost twice as large as transactions between the Arab world and Russia, a traditional partner with the region. \u201cThis is certainly a consequence of closer ties between the two blocs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the director of the Department for Latin America at the League of Arab States, Ibrahim Mohieldin, Arab countries hope to consolidate the relations between the two regions on every level. \u201cI believe that it will happen when our relations surpass the purely governmental aspect and establish themselves for good on the level of civil society. Hence the crucial importance of joint work and communication between social institutions,\u201d said Mohieldin.<\/p>\n
In that respect, BenHelli explained that another priority of the Arab countries is to have immigrants and descendents of Arab origin in South America act as bridges for cooperation between the two regions. \u201cFor that reason, we are preparing a meeting, to take place in 2010, of Arab ministers dedicated solely to dealing with expatriates worldwide. The meeting should be attended by representatives of Arab communities in all of the South American countries,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
At the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the main issues approached were the Israeli government\u2019s approval for the construction of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the recent problems between Iraq and Syria, and the situation in Sudan.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ministers of Foreign Relations from the two blocs are going to meet on the sidelines of the UN\u2019s General Assembly. The aim is to arrive at common stances regarding matters of international interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2310,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-affairs"},"wps_subtitle":"Ministers of Foreign Relations from the two blocs are going to meet on the sidelines of the UN\u2019s General Assembly. The aim is to arrive at common stances regarding matters of international interest.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}