APS : Tuesday, 26 June 2018
ALGIERS- Algeria called Monday to strengthen cooperation and dialogue between the two shores of the western Mediterranean as part of the 5+5 Dialogue in order to face common challenges.
“Algeria remains committed to the need of strengthening the 5+5 Dialogue to reach a consensus on possible approaches to issues of common interest,” such as development, security, migration, radicalization and youth, said director general for Europe at Foreign Affairs Ministry Mohamed Hannache in the 3rd MedThink 5+5 Forum.
In this regard, he stressed the importance given by Algeria to the 5+5 Dialogue which constitutes a space “that allows constructive exchanges, reflecting the richness and specificity of the western Mediterranean region.”
While broaching this forum, under the theme “Human development as a driver of cooperation in the 5+5 Dialogue: Common challenges, shared management,” he emphasized the importance that Algeria gives to such activities, considering it as a “suitable framework of exchanges and reflection which completes the other cooperation initiatives in the Western Mediterranean.”
“Algeria has always worked for the promotion of this cooperation framework,” he added. “The initiative to host this forum of experience and vision exchanges aims at the rapprochement between the North and the South of the Western Mediterranean where academics and civil society have key role to play,” said Hannache.
Our purpose is “to build an overview on the state and prospects of the regional cooperation to establish a more strengthened cooperation basis between the two shores of the Western Mediterranean,” he added.
Concerning the migration issue, he said that this phenomenon has become a “real issue facing the whole region, hence the need to act to find solutions as part of solidarity and cooperation, two founding principles of the 5+5 Dialogue for a calm and stable Mediterranean.”
For his part, Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Nasser Kamel underlined the challenges facing the Western Mediterranean “which require a common response through concrete initiatives and projects.”
On this occasion, he welcomed Algeria’s “leadership and dynamism” for the consolidation of partnership between the two shores of the Western Mediterranean as well as its initiative on the development of an inclusive and sustainable social economy which emphasizes the “key role” of young people.
