By KUNA,
Kuwait : The Third Expanded Ministerial Conference of the Neighbouring Countries of Iraq kicks off on Tuesday under the auspices of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah preceded by a meeting of senior officials and experts Monday evening.
Twenty-nine foreign ministers and top representatives of regional and international organisations are taking part in the conference.
Countries represented include the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria, Turkey, the United States, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Sweden. Also taking part are representatives of the United Nations, the European Union Presidency, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the GCC, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League.
The meeting of senior officials and experts of the participating countries and organisations is set to convene Monday evening.
On Tuesday, the prime minister will inaugurate the ministerial meeting with a welcoming address in which he is expected to thank the delegations for accepting the invitation to attend and laud their efforts to support Iraq, as well as express Kuwait’s desire to see the goals of this meeting achieved. A closed-door session will follow.
To conclude the one-day ministerial meeting, a joint press conference will bring together Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah and Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
A number of topics are on the agenda, including security challenges in Iraq and means to overcome them with the assistance of the country’s neighbours, as well as Iraq’s debts and repeated calls of the government for their reduction, alongside raising the level of diplomatic representation in Baghdad to the ambassadorial level.
The first expanded meeting was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in May 2007, while the second was held in Istanbul, Turkey, in November.