SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Britain’s new prime minister Rishi Sunak on Monday vowed imminent action on cross-Channel migrants after his first face-to-face meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Sunak has taken a much more positive tone toward Macron than his short-lived predecessor Liz Truss, who infamously refused to say whether the president was a friend or foe.
The leaders met on the sidelines of the UN’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt, with Sunak under pressure from days of bad headlines on the fate of migrants holed up in one UK detention center.
“It was great to meet President Macron to talk about not just tackling illegal migration but the range of other areas in which we want to cooperate closely with the French on,” he told UK media.
“And I think there is an opportunity for us to work closely, not just with the French but with other (European) countries as well,” he said.
“You will hear more details about that in the coming weeks as those conversations happen among all our teams.
“But I’m actually leaving this with renewed confidence and optimism that working together with our European partners, we can make a difference, grip this challenge of illegal migration and stop people coming illegally.”
Some 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, with predictions numbers could hit 50,000 or even 60,000 by the year-end.
That has caused a logjam in asylum claims and increased accommodation costs estimated by the UK government at £6.8 million ($7.8 million) a day.
Sunak insisted his beleaguered interior minister, Suella Braverman, was getting to grips with the crisis, while stressing it lacked “one simple solution that’s going to solve it overnight.”
In its own account of the meeting, Macron’s office said only that he and Sunak agreed to “stay in contact” on the migration issue.
They also discussed climate commitments at COP and the war in Ukraine, agreeing to support the “vital needs” of the Ukrainian armed forces through the winter months, the Elysee said.
Macron invited Sunak to a Paris conference on December 13 about Ukraine, it said.
UK’s new PM touts migrant cooperation after Macron meet
https://arab.news/6j2y8
UK’s new PM touts migrant cooperation after Macron meet
- Sunak is under pressure from days of bad headlines on the fate of migrants holed up in one UK detention center
- Some 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year
India, Arab League target $500bn in trade by 2030
- It was the first such gathering of India–Arab FMs since the forum’s inauguration in 2016
- India and Arab states agree to link their startup ecosystems, cooperate in the space sector
NEW DELHI: India and the Arab League have committed to doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, as their top diplomats met in New Delhi for the India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
The foreign ministers’ forum is the highest mechanism guiding India’s partnership with the Arab world. It was established in March 2002, with an agreement to institutionalize dialogue between India and the League of Arab States, a regional bloc of 22 Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa.
The New Delhi meeting on Saturday was the first gathering in a decade, following the inaugural forum in Bahrain in 2016.
India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said in his opening remarks that the forum was taking place amid a transformation in the global order.
“Nowhere is this more apparent than in West Asia or the Middle East, where the landscape itself has undergone a dramatic change in the last year,” he said. “This obviously impacts all of us, and India as a proximate region. To a considerable degree, its implications are relevant for India’s relationship with Arab nations as well.”
Jaishankar and his UAE counterpart co-chaired the talks, which aimed at producing a cooperation agenda for 2026-28.
“It currently covers energy, environment, agriculture, tourism, human resource development, culture and education, amongst others,” Jaishankar said.
“India looks forward to more contemporary dimensions of cooperation being included, such as digital, space, start-ups, innovation, etc.”
According to the “executive program” released by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the roadmap agreed by India and the League outlined their planned collaboration, which included the target “to double trade between India and LAS to US$500 billion by 2030, from the current trade of US$240 billion.”
Under the roadmap, they also agreed to link their startup ecosystems by facilitating market access, joint projects, and investment opportunities — especially health tech, fintech, agritech, and green technologies — and strengthen cooperation in space with the establishment of an India–Arab Space Cooperation Working Group, of which the first meeting is scheduled for next year.
Over the past few years, there has been a growing momentum in Indo-Arab relations focused on economic, business, trade and investment ties between the regions that have some of the world’s youngest demographics, resulting in a “commonality of circumstances, visions and goals,” according to Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“The focus of the summit meeting was on capitalizing on the economic opportunities … including in the field of energy security, sustainability, renewables, food and water security, environmental security, trade, investments, entrepreneurship, start-ups, technological innovations, educational cooperation, cultural cooperation, youth engagement, etc.,” Quamar told Arab News.
“A number of critical decisions have been taken for furthering future cooperation in this regard. In terms of opportunities, there is immense potential.”
