Bahama Islands Info
NASSAU, The Bahamas – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon. Frederick Mitchell said, on December 19, 2012, that his recent visit to Morocco was productive and resulted in the formation of new relationships between The Bahamas and countries in that region.
The meeting, held December 12-14, 2012, in Marrakech and called The Fourth Summit of the Group of Friends of Syria, was completely sponsored by the Kingdom of Morocco and primarily addressed the promotion of the self-determination of the people of Syria amongst other nations.
“We are not actively involved as a country, in this issue; but took the opportunity – since the visit was sponsored by the Kingdom of Morocco – to interface with countries from that part of the world,” Minister Mitchell said. “Countries such as The Bahamas get very rare opportunities in these various fora (forums) to interact with countries that we would not normally come into contact with and, so, we take the opportunity when we have the opportunity to interface with them. This was a valuable opportunity to that.”
Minister Mitchell said that The Bahamas voted on the various resolutions in the United Nations that supported the freedom and the right to self-determination of the people of Syria.
Minister Mitchell noted that there was also a wider meeting of Caribbean representatives with the Moroccans. Countries represented included St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada.
Minister Mitchell added that the summit afforded The Bahamas an opportunity have an outreach to Dubai, which is one of the United Arab Emirates.
He said it was an opportunity, firstly, to speak to officials from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and their foreign minister and agree to a number of items, including the exploration of a technical co-operation agreement between the two countries, with particular emphasis on tourism and financial services – both of which are important aspects of the economy in the U.A.E.
The two countries agreed that, at some appropriate time, there would be an exchange of visits between the two countries, with the foreign ministers visiting each other’s country, Minister Mitchell said. Also, he said, they agreed that they would look to appointing non-resident Ambassadors for each country.
“We can consider that to be an important accomplishment and achievement in the sidebars of this meeting of the ‘Friends of Syria’,” Minister Mitchell said.
Minister Mitchell said that the summit allowed for bilateral discussions with Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Saad Addin Al-Osmani and tours of various sites throughout the country.
Among the topics discussed at the meeting with Minister Al-Osmani were the possibilities of scholarships for Caribbean students to Morocco technical schools, tourism exchanges and agricultural and fisheries processes and developments.
Currently, Minister Mitchell said, Morocco has about 10 million tourists each year, based on cultural and heritage tourism. However, he noted, the country has a coastline and is interested in The Bahamas’ programme of promoting that aspect of tourism.
“It looks like an even and good exchange (on ideas in tourism) so we agreed that we would have some further discussions on that point as well,” said Minister Mitchell.
“There is to be a technical follow-up visit by a staff member from the Moroccan foreign ministry in January (2013),” Minister Mitchell added. “I extended, on behalf of the Government an invitation to the (Foreign) Minister of Morocco to make a visit to The Bahamas and, at some point – if we settle the technical co-operation agreement which we have proposed – we visit Morocco again to sign the technical co-operation agreement.”
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