The 31st summit of the Arab League opens Tuesday at the Abdelatif Rahal International Conference Center in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
The agenda of the meeting includes discussion of current problems of the region, in particular the crisis situation in Libya, Syria, Yemen, the Palestinian case, as well as the issue of food security, the strengthening of inter-Arab relations and the implementation of projects within the framework of Arab economic integration.
The event opening in Algiers is the first face-to-face meeting of the leaders of the League for more than three years. The last Arab summit was held in early April 2019 in Tunisia, after which the League did not hold such events due to restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Summit on the Anniversary of the Revolution
The summit starts on the important day for Algeria, the Anniversary of the Revolution, a national holiday that coincides this time with the 68th anniversary of the beginning of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), which led to the country's independence from France.
During the preparations for the summit, the Algerian authorities repeatedly declared their desire to see "all Arab countries, without exception, at the meeting," which should be "comprehensive and inclusive, allowing to bring inter-Arab relations back to normal."
Nevertheless, not all Arab leaders came to the Arab League summit in Algeria. For various reasons, the heads of Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were absent.
The president of Senegal, the current chairman of the African Union, Macky Sall, is the guest of honor at the summit.
For a long time, the possibility of King Mohammed VI's arrival was uncertain, given the tensions between Morocco and Algeria. In the end, the monarch decided not to attend the summit. Morocco will be represented by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
League predicts success
At the end of the summit, participants are expected to adopt the Algiers Declaration, which will reflect the positions of the countries in the region on political and socio-economic issues.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed the hope that the 31st summit will be "a decisive turning point for the revival of joint Arab action and the strengthening of its effectiveness."
LAS Deputy Secretary-General Hossam Zaki, in turn, said on the eve of the meeting that Arab ministers "managed to reach consensus on dossiers and crises in some Arab countries" during the preparatory meetings. "Everything points to the success of the Arab summit," he added. At the same time, Zaki acknowledged that there were isolated disagreements on some points in the summit's outcome document, while noting that "all tensions were contained" and that "the meetings were held in a friendly and respectful atmosphere."
The Algerian authorities pay attention to another curious detail. The forthcoming summit will be the first summit in the history of the Arab League without using paper for working purposes. All delegations will receive modern digital devices for real-time access to current information, revisions to draft documents, and other information related to the work of the summit.
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Based on materials from TASS