By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia, the current chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has proposed the holding of regional meetings to enable the Arab world to shed the image of Muslims being associated with terrorism as portrayed by the West, says Foreign Minister Dr Rais Yatim.
Arab countries would be invited to attend these meetings, he says, adding that the proposal was made at the second Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on April 5 and 6.
Rais told reporters Sunday that Malaysia also proposed at the dialogue that the Anti-Terrorism Training Centre in Kuala Lumpur be utilised for the benefit of countries faced with the issue of terrorism, and that the proposal was well-received.
“The dialogue came up with several resolutions and one was on forging co-operation in anti-terrorism activities between Asian and Arab countries,” said Rais, who led the Malaysian delegation to the meeting.
Rais also led a delegation to the first Malaysia-Egypt Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) held in Cairo on April 7 and 8.
He will go to Pakistan next week over the matter of Pakistan’s re-admission to the Commonwealth. Malaysia is the vice-chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration (CMAG) to consider the situation in Pakistan.
Pakistan was suspended by the Commonwealth Heads of State and government at their summit in the Zimbabwe capital last November pending the return of democracy and rule of law in the country.