New Delhi, Jan 29 (.) India will host the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM) on Saturday, January 31, marking the first time this association’s meeting is being held in New Delhi.
The meeting will be co-chaired by India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with participation from Foreign Ministers of all Arab League member states and the Arab League Secretary-General.
This year’s FMM will witness full participation from all 22 Arab nations, including Foreign Ministers, Ministers of State, senior officials, and representatives from the Arab League.
The Foreign Ministers of Sudan, Palestine, and Comoros have already arrived in India to attend the meeting. The External Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, welcomed the dignitaries on social media, highlighting that their visit will help strengthen people-to-people ties between India and the Arab countries.
The Ministry of External Affairs emphasised that the summit is expected to foster deeper diplomatic, economic, and cultural cooperation, further reinforcing India’s long-standing partnership with the Arab world.
“This meeting represents a significant step in deepening India’s engagement with the Arab world,” Jaiswal said, while welcoming Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Sudan, and Varsen Aghabekian, Foreign Minister of the State of Palestine.
The 2nd India-Arab FMM comes after a ten-year gap, following the inaugural meeting held in Bahrain in 2016.
During the first meeting, ministers identified five priority areas of cooperation: economy, energy, education, media, and culture, and proposed a set of activities across these sectors.
This time, the leaders are aiming to build on this foundation, further expanding and strengthening bilateral and multilateral partnerships.
The India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving collaboration between India and the Arab League, formalised in March 2002 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.
Subsequently, an Arab-India Cooperation Forum was established in December 2008, with its structure revised in 2013. India continues to hold the status of an Observer in the Arab League, a pan-Arab organization comprising 22 member states.
. .