Baghdad summit: Further cementing trilateral strategic partnership

Solidifying the historic ties between Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, His Majesty King Abdullah, Egypt President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi on Sunday held their fourth trilateral summit. 

The summit came on the heels of the tripartite cooperation mechanism first launched in 2019 to increase coordination.

The three leaders’ coming together in Baghdad comes at a time of dire need for closer cooperation between the three countries in many fields, mainly energy, security, economy, trade and investment. 

The geographical proximity and the vast potential in the fields of energy and agriculture of the three countries can be put to good use.

The implementation of agreed upon strategic projects between the three countries will offer the nations a myriad of opportunities to build on and for Jordan it will be a great opportunity to cash in on its expertise in a number of competitive sectors, mainly in the food and pharmaceutical industries, fertilisers, chemical industries, packaging, ICT and human resources.

Regarding Arab causes, the summit sent a message that the three leaders are standing together in the face of the common challenges.

The summit   covered several regional issues, foremost of which is the Palestinian cause; the core of the conflict in the Middle East. Jordan reaffirmed its unwavering position that a comprehensive and fair peace can only be achieved by ending the occupation and meeting Palestinians’ legitimate rights to freedom and the establishment of an independent and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the June 4, 1967 lines based on the two-state solution.

The joint communiqué at the conclusion of the summit underlined the crucial role of the Hashemite Custodianship in safeguarding Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and commended Jordan’s relentless efforts to stop Israeli violations and aggression in Jerusalem and in the Palestinian territories.

Reaffirming Jordan’s support for Iraq, His Majesty commended the determination of the Iraqi people and leadership to continue on the path of progress and development.

Jordan also commended Iraq’s victory against terrorist groups, and stressed the need to isolate Iraq from regional interventions.

The issue of the Renaissance Dam was also discussed during the summit, where Jordan expressed support for Egypt and Sudan’s position based on international law. Egypt’s water security is an integral part of Arab national security, Jordan reaffirmed at the summit.

The three sides also called for scaling up efforts to end the Syrian crisis.

The historic summit offered a chance to build on the three countries’ cooperation and common values to serve the best interests of the three countries and their people.