Bahrain participates in 16th ACD ministerial meeting

Doha, May 2 (BNA): Bahrain’s delegation, led by Director of the Afro-Asian Affairs, Mona Abbas Mahmoud Radhi, took part in the Senior Officials' Meeting and the 16th Ministerial Meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). The meeting, held in Doha on April 30 and May 1, was attended by the member states, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The Doha Declaration welcomed a proposal by Bahrain to host the ACD meeting with the General Secretaries of the other Asian regional organisations and forums as part of the first phase of cooperation between the ACD and potential development partners. The Doha Declaration stressed the importance of enhancing cooperation among ACD member States to promote partnerships in the six cooperation areas: the relationship between food, energy and water security, communication, science, technology and innovation, education and human resources development and encouraging ways of promoting comprehensive and sustainable development as well as tourism and culture. The declaration affirmed rejection of all forms of ethnic and religious based racism, discrimination, extremism and terrorism and welcomed the State of Palestine’s accession to the Asian Cooperation Dialogue. The participation of Bahrain, as one of the ACD founding members, was based on its strong belief in joint work in various fields, sharing experiences and benefiting from the various available possibilities and capabilities of a diverse continent like Asia. Bahrain believes that Asia boasts a wealth of expertise and rich experiences that can be harnessed through closer cooperation to work out strategies and implement them together to reduce poverty and ensure sustainable development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The ACD was established in June 2002 in Thailand with the aim of enhancing ties between the Asian countries in many areas such as in food, water and energy security, communications, science, technology and innovation, education and human resources development, in addition to cashing in on cooperation to attain comprehensive and sustainable development. ACD emphasises on the expansion of the trade sector and financial markets to strengthen cooperation among the Asian countries and promote Asian economic competitiveness in the global market. It aims to promote inter-Asian interaction in all areas of cooperation by identifying common opportunities that help fight poverty, improve the standard of living of the Asian peoples and create an Asian society capable of interacting with the rest of the world and contributing to global peace and well-being.