Ammon News - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Safadi, on Sunday voiced the Kingdom's commitment to enhancing Jordanian-Egyptian-Iraqi cooperation within the framework of the trilateral cooperation mechanism in accordance with the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah, who conveyed his greetings to the Iraqi leaders whom Safadi met in Baghdad.
The King's message, which reaffirmed Jordan's support with its full capabilities to Iraq, was convyed after Safadi, along with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, held in Baghdad meeting with Iraq's President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi and Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi, after holding extensive talks with their Iraqi counterpart Fouad Hussein.
The talks concluded with an agreement to adopt an institutional mechanism to follow up on the implementation of the projects presented within the trilateral cooperation mechanism, and coordinate future steps to give it greater momentum, especially in light of the economic challenges that made systematic cooperation a more urgent necessity to serve common interests.
In a joint press conference with his Egyptian and Iraqi counterparts, Safadi said that his visit and his Egyptian counterpart's to Iraq came in the context of following up on the trilateral cooperation mechanism, "which was launched by our leaders in order to enhance our joint work in to serve our peoples, and a systematic institutional step to achieve the best in all areas of cooperation available before us."
"Today we met with the Iraqi leaders, the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament, and conveyed the greetings of His Majesty King Abdullah II to them and to our people in Iraq," Safadi added.
"Our message today is that our joint cooperation is a need and a necessity in order to increase our ability to face the many and growing challenges in our region, both in relation to the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis and its impacts on food security, energy and commodity prices, and with regard to regional challenges that we are all working to overcome, and to achieve security, stability and peace we all need," Safadi said.
Al-Safadi stressed that the three countries are continuing to enhance their cooperation with clear visions, a solid will, and systematic and continuous work.
"We stand by brotherly Iraq in facing all challenges, because Iraq's security is our security, Iraq's stability is our stability, and Iraq's achievement is an achievement for all of us," Safadi underlined.
He added, "We stand by brotherly Iraq with all our powers, all our capabilities, and all our potinials. and we see the trilateral cooperation mechanism as a way to maximize our joint capabilities for achievement and for facing challenges."
"We have made great leaps towards identifying opportunities that we can work on together, whether in the sectors of trade, industry, economy, land transport, electricity linkage, etc. Today, we have basically agreed on a step towards institutionalizing this cooperation by establishing a mechanism that ensures an active, continuous and efficient follow-up on the achievement that is being done,", Safadi noted
Safadi said that talks dealt with the regional situation and "our joint efforts to enhance security and stability. They also included "our main cause, the Palestinian cause, and our continuous efforts to support our Palestinian brothers in their pursuit of their full legitimate rights, foremost of which is their right to freedom and an independent, sovereign state on their national soil, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital."
He pointed out that the meeting will be followed by meetings at multiple levels, sectoral, professional and technical, "because we believe that in light of the growing challenges, our joint effort and work must increase."
Safadi further added that "there is a clear roadmap to achieve practical steps to achieve more cooperation in implementation of the visions of our leaders" through serious, systematic and productive work that serves the interests of the three countries and contributes to strengthening joint Arab action."
He pointed out that several agreements were signed and more means were found for cooperation between the three countries.
He noted that the electricity linkage agreement between Jordan and Iraq, and Jordan, whose network is connected to the Egyptian network, is expected to start exporting electricity to Iraq in accordance with the agreement at the beginning of next year after completing the necessary infrastructure works.
Regarding the oil pipeline project from Basra to Aqaba, Safadi said that this project has a great positive impact on Iraq and Jordan, as well as on Egypt, because the vision is to start from Jordan towards Egypt, and this is a big project that needs many studies and rquires consensus.
"According to our joint assessment, 80 percent of the preparations required to launch this project have been completed, and we are now waiting for the final steps," Safadi explained.
He noted that the principle and preliminary studies that prove the feasibility of the project have been agreed upon.
He pointed out that "there is also an industrial city or free zone project on the Jordanian-Iraqi borders, where the three countries will work to launch this city as an investment site to potintial investors in order to achieve economic integration between us."
He said that the industrial city is in the final stage of completing the preparations that will start attracting industries and investments.
"Mutual benefit is the basis from which we launched the trilateral cooperation mechanism" where "nothing will succeed unless it achieves a common benefit for all its parties, and we are confident that this trilateral cooperation mechanism is able to bring welfare to our countries and peoples. It is also able to provide a platform for further regional cooperation, which has proven useful in recent challenges, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian war" Safadi further explained.
Safadi said that cooperation is an integrated cooperation in the economy and politics and in facing challenges, pointing out to the cooperation in combating "terrorism, which constitutes a common enemy to all of us and a threat to all of us."
In turn, Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fouad Hussein, said that the visit of Foreign Ministers Safadi and Shoukry comes in the context of the trilatera cooperation mechanism, coordination and continuous deliberation "on issues related to the three countries as well as issues related to the region and the world."
He added, "In the current period and at this stage, we are all facing many great challenges, and after the cosmic challenge in confronting the Coronavirus, we have begun to face a challenge that is no less dangerous than the Corona disease, which is the challenge of war."
He further added that "Geographically, the Russian-Ukrainian war has a relationship with Europe, but the dimensions of this war affect many countries and many societies, including societies and countries in this region. The effects and dimensions of this war on the political situation, the economic situation, the economic inflation that exists in societies and markets, as well as the impact of this war on the energy crisis, the management of the energy crisis and the rise in energy prices have been examined.
"The meeting touched upon a set of issues that pertain to the region, and how to work jointly in facing challenges that need work, planning and joint organization in the trilateral framework" Hussein said.
He added, "We talked about relations, recent meetings between the sectoral ministries, as well as identifying these meetings' results, as there is a continuous development and tangible results for the bilateral relations between countries."
For his part, Egypt 's Foreign Minister said that this is an opportunity to reaffirm the directives of the three countries' leaders and the strong political relations beween them to strengthen this framework of Egyptian-Iraqi-Jordanian trilateral cooperation to serve the interests of the three peoples on a solid ground of common history, civilization and the strong relations between these countries at the popular level, in addition to the long relations between the institutions in the three countries.
Shoukry said that "the goal since the establishment of the trilateral framework is to support Iraq, support its stability, and preserve its sovereignty in order to achieve development after years of challenges," congratulating Iraq and its people on their achievements in confronting terrorism, the success in overcoming this challenge, and the continuation of the tireless work to develop Iraq to achieve its full restoration of its regional and international status."
With regard to challenges facing the region, the Egyptian Foreign Minister explained that they are working together "to form a unified vision of how to deal with and overcome these challenges."
He Referred to the work within the framework of enhancing mechanisms and discussing achievements within the framework of trilateral cooperation in various sectors, forming a coordination mechanism, and "creating new opportunities and areas of cooperation that enhance this relationship and its benefits to the peoples of the three countries."
Shoukry expressed his aspiration for continued work, coordination, and enhancement of Arab national security, not only through the framework of the trilateral cooperation mechanism, but also through the Arab League, and the close coordination between countries, based on preserving the future of their peoples, and seeking to advance relations to levels that match the aspirations of their peoples and the Arab peoples in general.
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