Istanbul : UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan participated yesterday at the fifth Turkish-Arab Economic Forum and the third Foreign Ministers' meeting of the forum in Istanbul.
Organised by the econ-omic and business group at the Turkish Finance Ministry in cooperation with the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) and the Council of Foreign Trade Relations in Turkey, the forum tackled cooperation ties with focus on the political and economic aspects between the Arab countries and Turkey.
The UAE delegation includes UAE Ambassador to Egypt and representative of UAE at Arab League Mohammad Nakhaira Al Daheri, UAE Ambassador to Turkey Khalid Khalifa Al Mualla, Ambassador Mohammad Sultan Saif Al Suwaidi and Ambassador Abdul Hamed Kadhim at the Foreign Ministry.
Attended
The forum is attended by 14 Arab foreign and finance ministers.
The Secretary-General of Arab League Amr Mousa, Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Al Hariri, Foreign Ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine and Sudan are participating in the event.
The Arab Finance and Economy Ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Iraq, besides Arab and Turkish businesspersons, companies, banking and investment groups are also participating in the forum.
The participants underscored that the event reflects the growing relations between the two sides regarding the strategic, political, economic and investment dimensions. It also depicts the strategic role of Turkey as a regional player to build stronger Turkish- Arab partnership.
They lauded the stance of Turkey towards the Palestinian issue, reiterating that the forum reflects depth of the Arab-Turkish relations.
The volume of mutual trade between the Arab countries and Turkey increased from 2002 to 2009 by fourfold, touching $29 billion.
The participants emphasised that the gathering could boost food security, movement of capital, investment opportunities and would bolster the cooperation framework between Turkish and Arab banks and financial markets as well.
They noted that the Arab investments in Turkey will make the country a launch pad to the Asian and European markets.
