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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 04 Mar 2007 Title: SA to strengthen relations with Gulf states --------------------------------------------------------------- By Thapelo Sakoana, tel: (012) 314-2287 Relations between South Africa and the Gulf countries are set to improve with Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad paying a working visit there in an effort to consolidate ties. The deputy minister left on Saturday and is expected to pay two official visits to Qatar and Iran between today and Thursday. Mr Pahad will be in Qatar from Sunday until Tuesday and is scheduled to hold discussions with his counterpart Minister of State for External Affairs, Ahmed Abdullah al-Mahmoud. Issues that would be discussed between the counterparts include the status of bilateral political and economic relations between South Africa and Qatar as well as developments in the Middle East peace process. The meeting will allow the deputy minister to brief Mr al-Mahmoud about the African developmental agenda including the consolidation of institutions of the African Union and the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). Deputy Minister Pahad is also to talk about conflict resolution and peacekeeping in Africa. Similarly, Minister al-Mahmoud is to brief Mr Pahad about developments in the Gulf region including Iran's nuclear programme. Mr Pahad is expected to leave Qatar on Tuesday ahead of the Seventh Council of Ministers Meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation (IOR-ARC), which will be held in Tehran, Iran. He will then lead the South African delegation to this two-day meeting, which starts on Wednesday. The IOR-ARC is a multilateral organisation comprised of countries that share a shoreline along the Indian Ocean and was launched in March 1997 in Mauritius with the objective of focusing mainly on trade-related issues. Its meeting is an important instrument to promote shared economic benefit between all member states of the association and would this year celebrate ten years since its formal inauguration. The South African delegation would participate in discussions aimed at exploring ways through which IOR-ARC could be used as an instrument to unlock the vast potential of the region, which has the population of close to two billion people. "The meeting will also elicit ways and means in which trade and investment flows, trade liberalisation, as well as the sustainable exploitation of the tourism potential of the association's members could be enhanced," said the Department of Foreign Affairs. Discussions of working groups in the meeting would focus on the following aspects: Foreign Direct Investment Tourism Promotion and Development Projects Preferential Trading Agreement Economic Summit for leading business Executives of IOR-ARC An integrated coastal management programme Increased student and academic exchange within the region The promotion of inter-regional tourism Cross border financial services A fisheries protocol amongst members A review of the IOR-ARC Special Fund South Africa was one of the founding members of the IOR-ARC, which is based on the principle of open regionalism and is a flexible forum that compares with other regional arrangements such as preferential trade agreements, free trade areas, customs unions and common markets, among others. With several IOR-ARC member states sharing participation in other regional initiatives, the IOR-ARC plays an important role as building block for the promotion of south-south cooperation and for complementing African-Asian regional integration. IOR-ARC member states include Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. - BuaNews |
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