A meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus (Nikos Christodoulidis), Greece (Nikos Dendias), Israel (Gabi Ashkenazi), and of the United Arab Emirates (Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) will take place tomorrow and Saturday in Paphos.
The latter will participate through a teleconference, while he will be represented at the meeting by the Diplomatic Adviser of the UAE President and former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash.
This is the first joint meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the four countries which becomes possible after the recent normalisation of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
The meeting aims to take advantage of the prospects opened, through this development, for further enlargement of regional cooperation networks on the basis of a positive agenda, to enhance peace, stability and security in the wider region.
During the meeting, which will start on Friday, the participating Ministers are expected to exchange views on a number of regional issues and issues of common interest.
These are the latest developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Gulf, as well as the situation in Syria, Libya and Yemen.
They will also have the opportunity to discuss, in the presence of official delegations, targeted proposals for developing cooperation between the four countries.
These include tackling the pandemic and its effects, the economic cooperation, energy, tourism, crisis management and the expansion of youth and academic/research institutions.
At the end of the joint meeting, the Ministers will make statements (at 17:30), which will be broadcast live on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Christodoulidis will hold separate meetings with his Greek and Israeli counterparts, as well as with the Diplomatic Adviser to the President of the United Arab Emirates.
On Saturday morning, the participating Ministers will have a joint meeting with the President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiadis, who will go for this purpose to the meeting place in Paphos.
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