New Delhi: India is set to host the 2nd ministerial summit of foreign ministers from the League of Arab States (Arab League) Saturday, after a decade-long gap, at a time when the region is facing a number of challenges—from the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to a number of regional conflicts among League members including Yemen, Sudan and Libya.
Sources tell ThePrint that the summit, apart from focusing on deepening cooperation between the Arab states and India, will also be a forum to discuss the various issues facing the region.
A joint statement is expected to be issued after the ministerial summit that will take forward the partnership in five verticals identified at the last summit in 2016—economy, energy, education, media and culture.
All 22 member-states of the Arab League are sending representatives at different levels. Around 7 to 8 foreign ministers are expected to attend the summit, while the other countries will be represented by deputy ministers, ministers of state and senior officials. The United Arab Emirates is set to co-chair the discussions.
The 4th India-Arab senior officials meeting is set to be held Friday, with all the delegations calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi later the same day.
“India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving this partnership, which was formalised in March 2002 when India and League of Arab States (LAS) signed an MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue…India is an Observer to the League of Arab States, a pan Arab body with 22 member States,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement Thursday.
Eltaher S.M. Elbaour, Foreign Minister of the internationally recognised Government of National Unity in Libya, will visit India in what will be the first such visit by a Libyan minister since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Elbaour’s visit to New Delhi follows reports indicating that Pakistan is looking to sell JF-17 fighter jets to the warlord, Khalifa Haftar, who is in control of Eastern Libya.
Over 50 percent of India’s bilateral trade with the 22 members of the Arab League is hydrocarbons. Total trade between India and the Arab League stood at $240 billion in the previous financial year. Most of India’s trade passes through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are all surrounded by members of the League.
Syria, a country that saw a change in government just a little over a year ago with the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, will be represented by Mohamad Zakaria Lababidi, Director of the Afro-Asian and Oceania Department in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, marking another diplomatic opening between New Delhi and Damascus.
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Palestine looks for reconstruction aid from India
For Palestine, represented by Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, the main ask at the summit would be aid for the reconstruction of Gaza, while further increasing Ramallah’s diplomatic footprint as an uneasy ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold in the Gaza Strip.
“I’m asking India to do whatever it takes to bring us closer to what real peace entails. Real peace entails going along with international law, respecting the rights of people to self-determination and the two-state solution, because India truly believes in the two-state solution and has been believing in it for a long time and its voting pattern at the UN, at the Human Rights Council, etc, shows that it is a two-stater. So as such, I would like India to continue pushing towards the two states and chipping in in humanitarian assistance, development assistance and reconstruction assistance,” Shahin told ThePrint Thursday.
The Palestinian Foreign Minister added, “Palestine will be at the table and the issue in Gaza moving forward, all of this would be part of the discussion and the reconstruction of Gaza. It’s a very good platform because you have the world, the Arab world, with India gathered together discussing these issues and garnering support to these hot issues in the area. Thank you so much.”
India has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause, with New Delhi recognising the country in the late 1980s. The reconstruction of Gaza is expected to figure during the talks, even as the US-led Board of Peace begins its operation in the strip. The Board of Peace is mandated by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to maintain peace and begin the reconstruction of Gaza till 2027 under Resolution 2803.
The Palestinian cause has figured heavily in the League of Arab States summits, with the famous Khartoum Resolution of 1967, with the “Three “No’s Policy”— no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel— issued at the organisation’s 4th summit.
While a number of Arab League member states have since signed agreements with Israel, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, the issue still resonates within the organisation.
Other conflicts in the region
Yemen and Sudan, two other countries also in the midst of civil wars, are sending representatives to the foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. Sudan will be represented by its Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, while Yemen is being represented by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mustapha Ahmed Mohamed Noman.
Sudan’s civil war began roughly three years earlier when its militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), seized the capital of Khartoum and large swathes of the Western regions of the country. The RSF has been receiving support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to media reports, while Saudi Arabia backs the internationally recognised government.
Similarly in Yemen, the UAE withdrew from the Saudi-led coalition last month, after Riyadh accused Abu Dhabi of supporting South Yemeni separatists. The Yemeni civil war began in 2015 when the Iranian-backed Houthis captured parts of Northern Yemen, including the capital of Sana’a.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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