Jordan participates in 4th Stockholm Initiative meeting

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Monday participated in the fourth ministerial meeting of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), hosted by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha Gonzalez Laya in Madrid, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The Spanish foreign minister chaired the fourth ministerial meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

The meeting followed the outcomes of the third ministerial meeting hosted by Jordan last January, at the joint invitation of Safadi and the German and Swedish foreign ministers.

The third ministerial meeting of the Stockholm Initiative adopted and expanded programmes to guarantee the success of the Tenth Review Conference of the NPT, to be held in New York this year.

During the fourth ministerial meeting, Safadi stressed that Jordan will continue to work with its international partners to have a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

He highlighted the need to adopt universal standard to deal with nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

The foreign minister also called for resolving all regional crises and channelling efforts on development rather than armaments.

Safadi noted that the Kingdom chaired the UN conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and WMDs in 2019 in New York.

The Jordanian foreign minister added that Jordan, as part of its serious endeavour to support international efforts to disarm WMDs and nuclear weapons, joined as a founding member of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament and the NPT in Sweden in 2019.

Safadi thanked Spanish Minister for organising the fourth ministerial meeting, extending appreciation to the distinguished efforts of Spain to make its work a success.

He also thanked the foreign ministers of Spain, Germany and Sweden for their joint chairmanship of the meeting.

Jordan, Spain, Sweden and Kazakhstan participated in the meeting.

Foreign ministers and senior officials from the remaining member states of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament virtually participated in the meeting, namely: The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Argentina and New Zealand.