Rome, 20 February 2012 (MAP)
The common challenges that the countries on both shores of the Mediterranean are facing required them to closely coordinate their activities and to establish an intensive cooperation and a balanced strategic partnership, said on Sunday Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad Dine El Otmani.
In a statement to MAP news agency upon his arrival in Rome to attend the 9th meeting of the Group 5+5 foreign ministers, El Otmani underlined, in this connection, the importance of dialogue between these countries to meet the challenges dictated by the current situation relating, notably, to security, migration, social change and economic crisis.
The 5 +5 Group includes Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya for the south shore of the western Mediterranean, and Spain, France, Italy, Malta and Portugal, for north shore.
For El Otmani, the expected partnership should give to the southern countries of the Mediterranean the same latitude as those granted to countries of the north shore to defend their interests, to serve their people and consider their future calmly.
The Minister also expressed optimism in context of the holding of the meeting of the Group 5+5 after the changes that the Maghreb region saw at the political level and that of democratic practice.
Having emphasized the importance of reforms implemented in Morocco, El Otmani referred to the momentum injected into the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and which, he said, allows the five members to attend this meeting with consistent and concrete action on many issues.
The minister also stressed the importance of this meeting in the context of prevailing economic and social crisis within the European Union and the political difficulties faced by some of its member countries.
The meeting of the Group 5 +5, scheduled for Monday in Rome, will discuss a number of issues relating to regional security, immigration, energy, protection of environment and development.
It will run under the joint chairmanship of the Foreign Ministers of Italy, Giulio Terzi, and Tunisia, Rafik Abdessalam, whose country hosted the eighth session in April 2010.
Created in 1990 in Rome, the 5 +5 Group aims to intensify cooperation among member countries to strengthen regional cooperation, to promote political dialogue and consensus on the approaches to the questions and issues of common interest.
The ministerial meeting in Rome will be followed, on the same day, by that of the Mediterranean Forum (Foromed), a regional institution for intergovernmental dialogue established in 1994.
The forum, an informal space for dialogue, has 11 member countries: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.
