"Forum for the Future": G8, BMENA Foreign Ministers Meet in Marrakesh
03/11/2009
The city of Marrakesh, in Morocco, has played host to the “Forum for the Future”, a debate between the foreign ministers of the G8 member countries and the foreign ministers of the Broader Middle East (BMENA - Broader Middle East and Northern Africa) with the participation of representatives of civil society, NGO's, experts and organisations active in the field of human rights.
The meeting opened with a working dinner on the evening of Monday 2 November. There was no set agenda, the dinner merely providing those in attendance with an initial opportunity to hold an exchange of views on the crises in the region. The Forum's work, which continued on Tuesday 3 November at the Palais des Congrès, in the city's Hotel Palmeraie Golf Palace, was co-chaired by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Fattini and by Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri.
One of the main issues at the heart of the debate, which set itself the target of supporting democratic reforms and socio-economic progress in the Middle East, was the situation in Afghanistan. This, also in the light of a decision by Abdullah Abullah, President Karzai's challenger, not to take part in the presidential runoff, and the Afghan Election Committee's consequent decision to cancel the runoff slated for 7 November.
“The international community and Italy will be by President Karzai's side to pursue the path of reforms", Minister Frattini remarked in that connection. He stressed, however, that the G8 member countries' diplomacies are calling on the Afghan Government for specific guarantees, starting with an effective struggle against corruption.
A great deal of attention was devoted also to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, another important issue on the agenda. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "The United States is committed to a global peace in the Middle East and the target is the two-state solution". In order to achieve that target, Ms. Clinton urged everyone to "work together", looking towards the future rather than towards the past because, she concluded: "I am convinced that peace is a target that it is possible to achieve".
