Messahel:”UMA Foreign Ministers To Convene Late February In Rabat”

The Minister delegate in charge of Maghrebian and African affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, told Sunday a press conference in Algiers that a ministerial meeting of the member-countries of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) was slated for next February in Rabat in a common bid to inject new life into the long-stalled Union.

• The statement was made ahead of the two-day official visit on Monday (January 23rd) due to be paid by the Moroccan foreign affairs Minister Mr Saadadine Al Othmani to Algeria at the invitation of his Algerian counterpart Mr Mourad Medelci.

• Mr Messahel indicated that the upcoming visit by the Moroccan diplomacy chief would be an opportunity to bolster Algerian-Moroccan relations and boost bilateral cooperation in various sectors of activity.

• Replying to a reporter’s question on the possible reopening of the Algerian-Moroccan border as expected by some quarters, Mr Messahel affirmed that such an issue would not be the order of the day during the forthcoming talks between the two ministers in Algiers.

• However, the minister underscored that the decision to close the border was never considered “definitive” stressing that this file would be dealt with in due course.

• After years of inconclusive talks and broken promises, Maghreb nations are inching closer towards re-building the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA). UMA diplomatic chiefs will convene at the end of February in Rabat, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said last week.
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• “The Arab Maghreb Union is a construction that requires a new organization of our relations, a change in some institutions as well as the creation of new mechanisms,” he stressed.

• Reviving the UMA is one of the core issues for Algeria, Medelci explained. “It’s clear that the developments that are taking place in regional countries will help encourage us to build an Arab Maghreb,” the Foreign Minister added.

• To do so, the countries involved will have to harmonize their political, economic and social actions. The Maghreb Union can only be achieved through actual steps that would allow for the creation of new mechanisms to help realize the “dream”, Medelci said.