The meeting of the Negev Forum steering committee and working groups opened this morning (Monday, January 9 2023) in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. The meeting will be attended by senior delegations from the six member states: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the USA and Israel.
This is the third meeting of the Negev Forum steering committee (the first was held in Bahrain in June 2022, and the second was held as a virtual meeting in October 2022). This is the first (physical) meeting of the working groups.
The Israeli delegation, which is led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General Alon Ushpiz, includes senior representatives from the ministries of agriculture, health, defense, intelligence, tourism, energy, education, the economy as well as representatives of the Water Authority and the National Security Council.
At the meeting, the delegations will prepare the Negev Forum foreign ministers summit, which is expected to take place in the coming months in Morocco with the participation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen.
Within this framework, the working groups will formulate a list of projects in the six areas they are entrusted with, which will be presented to the Negev Forum foreign ministers at their next meeting.
Background:
The Negev Forum was founded at the Negev Summit that was held at Sde Boker in March 2022, as part of the implementation process of the Abraham Accords. The working groups were also determined at the Negev Summit, with the aim of presenting concrete projects to be promoted by the member states.
The working groups that were established are:
Health
Regional security
Education and tolerance
Water and food security
Tourism
Energy
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Israel.
