The 15th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the “5+5 Dialogue” of the Western Mediterranean was held in Valleta on 18 January 2019, under the Maltese-Algerian co-Presidency on the theme “Working together: A Sustainable Future for the Western Mediterranean”. The conference took place in a context where the countries of the region have different challenges such as migration, the impact of climate change and bio-diversity loss, the threat of terrorism, radicalization and organized crime.
The Ministers welcomed the goals achieved in the sectoral ministerial meetings of the “5+5 Dialogue” since the last Ministerial meeting held in Algiers on 21 January 2018.
The Ministers thus discussed in depth the following topics: the reinforcement of the political dialogue on regional issues of common interest; regional security issues like the fight against terrorism and radicalization, the conflicts of Libya, Syria, Sahel and the Middle East peace process; and thematic cooperation in terms of youth, sustainable development, technology, ICT, gender equality, women’s empowerment, migration and mobility.
Ministers commended Morocco’s offer to hold a 5+5 Ministerial conference on Youth, with focus on Education and Employment, in the second half of 2019. They also welcomed the proposal of Morocco to host 5+5 Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development during the last quarter of 2019.
At the end of the meeting, Minister Abela thanked the Algerian co-presidency for its work over the past two years, and welcomed the announcement by Libya to take over the Southern co-presidency for the next two years.
Other meetings and seminars were held as part of the “5+5 Dialogue”. The 3rd 5+5 Annual MED Think Forum took place in Algiers on 25, 26 and 27 June 2018. The third edition of the Forum, co-organised by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in collaboration with the Algerian National Institute of Strategic Global Studies (NISGS), brought together more than fifty experts and representatives of think tanks and diplomatic institutions from the Member States of the 5+5 Dialogue. The aim of this Forum was to open a collective reflection on the growing interregional flows of people and resources, whose management can only be shared.
After this meeting, the 16th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Western Mediterranean Dialogue will be held in Tripoli in 2020, under the Maltese-Libyan co-Presidency.
Read the declaration here: https://medthink5plus5.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/55-Valletta-Declaration_ministerial.pdf