Palestinian FM's India Visit Strengthens Ties Ahead of Key Arab Ministers' Meeting

Aghabekian, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Palestinian National Authority, is on a visit to India to participate in the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting to be held on Saturday in the national capital.

MEA spokesperson Jaiswal said Aghabekian's visit reaffirms India's partnership with the people of Palestine and the Arab world.

Through an X post, the MEA spokesperson said, " Warm welcome to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, H.E. @VarsenAghShahin, as she arrives in India to participate in the 2nd India Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The visit reaffirms India's partnership with the people of Palestine and the Arab world."

India's support for the Palestinian cause is an integral part of the nation's foreign policy.

On Saturday, India will host the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting (IAFMM). The meeting will be co-chaired by India and the UAE. Foreign Ministers of other Arab League Member States and the Arab League Secretary General will participate in the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting, according to a press release from the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Foreign Ministers' meeting is taking place after a 10-year hiatus. The first meeting was held in 2016 in Bahrain. At the first FMM, the Ministers identified five priority verticals of cooperation: economy, energy, education, media and culture and proposed a set of activities across these verticals.

The second India-Arab FMM is expected to build on the existing cooperation, expanding and deepening the partnership.

The India Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving this partnership, which was formalised in March 2002 when India and the League of Arab States (LAS) signed an MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue.

A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed to establish the Arab-India Cooperation Forum during the visit of the then Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa to India in December 2008, and was subsequently revised in 2013 to reflect a revised structural organisation. India is an Observer to the League of Arab States, a pan Arab body with 22 member States.

As per the release, this is the first India-Arab FMM to be hosted by India in New Delhi and will see participation by all 22 Arab countries by Foreign Ministers, other Ministers, Ministers of State and other Senior Officials and the Arab League. The IAFMM will be preceded by the 4th India-Arab Senior Officials' Meeting on Friday.

In 1974, India became the first Non-Arab State to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In 1988, India became one of the first countries to recognise the State of Palestine. In 1996, India opened its Representative Office in Gaza, which was later shifted to Ramallah in 2003.

India has always played a proactive role in garnering support for the Palestinian cause in multilateral fora. India has consistently supported, cosponsored, and voted in favour of UN General Assembly Resolutions securing the right to self-determination of Palestinians(2020), urging Israel's compliance with legal obligations, viz. ICJ's Construction of the Wall Opinion (2004), and its status as a non-member State at the UN (2012).

In 2011, India also voted in favour of Palestine's admission to UNESCO.

According to a MEA brief, the NAM Ministerial Committee on Palestine was established under India's Presidency at the VII NAM Summit in New Delhi in 1983. As a member of the Security Council, India has continued to voice its support for a negotiated solution that would result in a sovereign, independent, viable, and united State of Palestine, within secure and recognised borders, at peace beside Israel, as endorsed in the relevant UNSC and UNGA Resolutions.

- ANI