NEW DELHI — External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday met Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Varsen Aghabekian and discussed development cooperation, the Gaza Peace Plan, and broader regional developments.
“Glad to meet Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of State of Palestine Varsen Aghabekian. Exchanged views on the Gaza Peace Plan and regional developments. Reviewed our development cooperation and agreed on initiatives to take it forward,” Jaishankar wrote in a post on X following the meeting.
Aghabekian arrived in New Delhi on Thursday to attend the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Marking her arrival, she said in a post on X, “Arrived in India to participate in the 2nd India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. This visit reaffirms the strong partnership between Palestine and India, and our shared commitment to cooperation with the Arab world.”
India is set to host the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on January 31. The meeting, being jointly hosted by India and the United Arab Emirates, will see the participation of foreign ministers from Arab League member states, along with the Arab League Secretary General, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
The second meeting is expected to build on existing areas of cooperation and expand the partnership between India and Arab countries. It will be preceded by the fourth India-Arab Senior Officials’ Meeting.
The Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is being held after a gap of nearly a decade, with the first such meeting taking place in Bahrain in 2016. During that inaugural meeting, leaders identified five priority areas of cooperation—economy, energy, education, media, and culture—and proposed a range of activities across those sectors.
“India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving this partnership, which was formalised in March 2002 when India and the League of Arab States (LAS) signed an MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
“A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed for the establishment of the Arab-India Cooperation Forum during the visit of the then Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa to India in December 2008, which was subsequently revised in 2013 in terms of structural organisation. India is an Observer to the League of Arab States, a pan Arab body with 22 member States,” the ministry added. (Source: IANS)
