Al Asoomi, Pacheco Meet in Cairo

The Speaker of the Arab Parliament (AP) Adel Bin Abdul Rahman Al Asoomi received President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Duarte Pacheco.

At the beginning of the discussion, Al Asoomi expressed the keenness of the AP to strengthen the role of parliamentary diplomacy in defending Arab issues in the world’s largest parliamentary forum, which prioritise the Palestinian cause.

Al Asoomi underlined that, as part of the AP’s new strategy of action, it was eager to build a strong institutional partnership with the IPU. It was launched with the signing of a technical cooperation agreement between the two organizations last November in Madrid.

It included the strengthening of institutional cooperation in the areas of sustainable development, women’s empowerment, promotion of human rights, countering terrorism, and preventing extremist ideology.

Al Asoomi noted that some existing cooperation projects between the AP and the IPU had been discussed during the meeting, such as the Mobile Application on Countering-Terrorism, which the AP has partnered with the IPU to arabize it, and the initiative of the Call for the Sahel Region of Africa, launched by the AP in partnership with the IPU, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the Interparliamentary Committee of the G5 Sahel.

The two sides discussed several programs and initiatives aimed at strengthening the institutional partnership with the IPU in several common interest areas, as well as operationalizing the role of regional parliamentary diplomacy within the framework of the IPU General Assembly meetings.

On his side, the President of the IPU, affirmed his keenness to activate the foundations and areas of the partnership established with the AP, and to that end, good preparation will be worked on through intensive future bilateral meetings, as well as the implementation of a number of joint programs aimed at building and strengthening parliamentarians’ capacities in many areas contained in the cooperation agreement between the two organizations.

Pacheco added that the IPU is keen to interact positively and fairly with Arab issues within the framework of its meetings and those of its organs, primarily the Palestinian cause itand at the same time, he commended the AP’s positions on a number of issues that are a priority at the global level, including the issue of interfaith dialogue, the rejection of intolerance, hate speech and extremism, and expressed his interest in strengthening cooperation with the AP on these issues.

In turn, the Speaker of the AP praised the IPU’s positive stances under its current presidency on the Palestinian cause, the Yemeni crisis and other Arab issues.

The two sides agreed that this meeting represents the first in a series of joint meetings with the aim of strengthening the partnership between the AP and the IPU.