Jordan highlights need for safe, stable Mediterranean neighbourhood at UfM meet

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Ayman Safadi and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Thursday chaired the seventh Regional Forum for Foreign Ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

The event was hosted by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in Barcelona with the participation of foreign ministers, representatives of UfM member states, EU officials, the concerned regional institutions and institutions financing projects in the Mediterranean, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.  

Addressing the forum, Safadi said that Barcelona hosted the forum 27 years after it made a promise to build a safe and stable Mediterranean neighbourhood that see the transfer of people, initiatives, thoughts, projects and commodities between the shores of the Mediterranean as part of a comprehensive effort to build a better future for the region's peoples.

“The promise made in Barcelona has not been fulfilled yet, and it is needed today more than ever, as crises on the two shores of the Mediterranean are exacerbating,” the statement quoted Safadi as saying.

In this regard, he said that a just and comprehensive peace is “more distant today than it was when the promise was made as hope for reaching an end to the Israeli occupation is fading with systematic undermining of the two-state solution”.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis have posed a threat to food and energy security, he said.  

The minister added that since its launch in 2008, “the union has provided much, and can and must provide more now, in light of the urgent need for joint action in addressing common challenges”.

He said that the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation is a platform for youth interaction and building bridges of culture, welcoming the presence of HRH Princess Rym Ali for the first time at the meeting.

Safadi said that international law and the UN Charter must be respected in Palestine and Ukraine to guarantee the absolute human right to freedom, sovereignty and decent living for all deprived peoples.

During a press conference with Albares, Borrell, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi and UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel, Safadi said that realising security and stability and resolving crises in the southern Mediterranean is a necessity to achieve prosperity and protect the interest of the Mediterranean neighbourhood.

The minister warned against the lack of hope to realise a just and fair peace based on the two-state solution that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the pre-1967 lines, living side by side with Israel.

Replying to a question, he said that Qatar has realised a great success in hosting “a unique” edition of the FIFA World Cup, stressing the need to respect differences and recognise positive aspects that outweigh negative ones that receive the attention of the public, which sends a wrong message, the statement said.    

Safadi also participated in the fourth meeting of foreign ministers of the Southern Neighbourhood with EU foreign ministers, as part of the EU policy towards the Southern Neighbourhood and the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. 

The minister expressed the Kingdom's pride in strategic partnership with the EU and its effectiveness in facing challenges and threats to the Mediterranean region.