Iran Urges Closer Regional Cooperation against Common Challenges

Iran believes that the regional countries should work on a coordinated and comprehensive response to common problems such as poverty and food insecurity, a senior Iranian foreign ministry official said.

“A majority of countries in our region are still confronted by numerous shared and common problems and great challenges such as extreme poverty, global food crisis and continued food insecurity, high level of unemployment, external debt burden, and lack of financial aid and climate change’s negative effects,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh said, addressing the 12th Meeting of Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation (IOR-ARC) Council of Ministers in Gurgaon, India, on Friday.

“There is a need to shape a comprehensive plan of action with a focus on eradicating poverty, and deployment and transfer of advanced technologies.”

He further stated that Tehran attached great importance to multilateral cooperation among regional states as an important means for their growth and development.

The 12th IOR-ARC meeting kicked off on Monday, 29th October, with the Academic Group meeting (IORAG) on Tuesday, 30th October, the Working Group on Trade and Industry (IOR-WGTI) deliberated issues of trade facilitation and so on.

The Indian Ocean Rim Business Forum (IORBF) meeting was held on 31st October.

In addition to Iran, 100 delegates including foreign ministers, ambassadors and media representatives from member countries are taking part in the meeting.