(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) ABU DHABI, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah on Tuesday participated in the 15th Ministerial Meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) hosted by the UAE's capital Abu Dhabi.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled expressed in his speech sincere condolences for United Arab Emirates' leadership, government, and people on the deaths of a group of diplomats while carrying out a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. The diplomat were slain during a terrorist bombing that took place at the headquarters of the governor of Kandahar.
In this regard, he reiterated strong condemnation of the State of Kuwait of this terrorist and heinous attack that targeted innocent lives, saying that such attack was contrary to the laws and human values.
He stressed Kuwait's firm position that rejected all forms and manifestations of terrorism, asking Almighty Allah to bestow his mercy on the deceased and quick recovery for the wounded.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled expressed deep gratitude and appreciation to the Government of the UAE for the warm hospitality and welcome and thanked the Kingdom of Thailand for its efforts during its presidency of the fourteenth ministerial meeting.
He also thanked the Secretary-General of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue and the members of the General Secretariat for the excellent organization and arrangement of this meeting.
"It gives us great pride to see the continuity of meetings of the ACD forum at frequent intervals, a matter that demonstrates determination of its member states to positively interact at the regional and international levels in order to achieve the goals on which the ACD was founded.
"We meet today in our fifteenth session of the Ministerial meeting which is not far from the second summit, which was hosted by the Kingdom of Thailand three months ago and we look forward to the meeting to be hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain next month for regional organizations with the General Secretariat of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, as well as the kind invitation submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran to host the third summit of the forum", he added.
"The State of Kuwait and out of its full awareness of the importance that this forum receives the needed attention to achieve the hopes of our peoples and their aspirations, has been keen since its accession to the Forum in 2003 to take several steps to strengthen the elements of strategic cooperation between our countries, therefore, it had hosted the first summit for dialogue on October 2012 and hosted the interim headquarters of the Secretariat since then," the Kuwaiti Minister noted.
He said he had the pleasure today and by approval of the member states to sign a letter of intent with the Secretary General of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue to have the State of Kuwait be honored to host the permanent headquarters of the General Secretariat of the ACD, stressing that the success of the Secretariat body "is linked to our support and concerted efforts to allow it to complete its important role and make success the purposes and principles that we all strive towards strengthening our common action".
With regard to the six areas of cooperation that were agreed upon during the second Summit, the State of Kuwait will organize two workshops in the areas of communications and sustainable development in the coming period.
"We look forward for the next consultations concerning initiative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to generate financial resources worth USD two billion to finance development projects in the Asian non-Arab countries, in which Kuwait will contribute USD 300 million", he pointed out.
The Kuwaiti Minister added that food security, energy, and water were the most important issues to be focused on.
"We have to find all ways to preserve them", said Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, adding this would not be possible without cooperation and coordination and participation among Member States.
He hailed what was stated in the concept paper presented at the meeting by the United Arab Emirates which "answers all our questions about the importance of energy, water, and food security".
He said that the plan submitted by the ACD was the real roadmap to preserve those important natural resources.
And believing in the importance of diversification of energy sources in general, and renewable and clean energies in particular, and the inevitability of working to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy sources more responsibly, the State of Kuwait's efforts began in the field of renewable energy research and localization technologies since 1980 which culminated in 1984 with the construction of the first plant for the production of electrical power for the use of solar thermal energy.
Kuwait has embarked on the implementation of several applied research projects aimed at providing innovative and low-cost engineering solutions for the use of renewable energy sources in order to achieve the vision of Kuwait to secure 15 percent of the need of domestic consumption from renewable sources by 2030.
Meanwhile, activities of the ACD kicked off early today with the participants discussing ways of bolstering cooperation in the energy, water, and food security for member states.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, opened the meeting.
He appreciated the commitment from the members of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) to work towards sustainable development goals.
Don Pramudwinai, Thailand's minister of foreign affairs, who is the chairman of ACD, said all members were keen to take forward the common spirit among Asian nations for a better future. (end).
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