European Council Pres.: EU Leaders Motivated For Summit With GCC Counterparts

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Bader Al-Bedah KUWAIT, Sept 11 (KUNA) -- President of the European Council Charles Michel affirmed on Wednesday that the 27 leaders of the European Union are motivated to hold the upcoming GCC-EU Summit in October.
Speaking to KUNA in an interview, the EU official reiterated the importance of the summit to be held on October 16th in Belgium to help enhance strategic partnership between the GCC and EU.
"We feel that the Political dialogue and cooperation is needed if we want to provide more stability, more security and more prosperity and for that we need to work together. We will express together, I hope, our strong ambitions for the future," said Michel.
"We are working to prepare for the first summit in history that will take place between the leaders of the GCC countries on one hand and the leaders of the EU on the other hand, as we face extraordinary difficult challenges internationally, we see that it is important for the European members to engage more with the leaders of the GCC region. We are here to prepare for those meetings in the summit," he noted.
Michel said topics to be discussed in the GCC-EU Summit would be the political ambition and to "have more strategic partnership," as well as the economic ambition and the vast potential in investments, trade, and economic sectors, "digitalization of our economy as it offers more opportunities in the future and more creativity, and diversifying economic models in the region and on the European level," he said.
He mentioned that it is fundamental to discuss the security and stability in the Middle East, which is important for the region and for the world.
Furthermore, he explained that through dialogue it would help the EU to make the right choices on the international level, and that the EU is convinced of the need to promote and support international law.
"We feel that the political dialogue and cooperation is needed if we want to provide more stability, more security and more prosperity, and for that we need to work together. We will express together, I hope, our strong ambitions for the future," he noted.
He stressed that it is also important from a geopolitical point of view, to understand what the expectations towards the EU are. "We know this war in Gaza is tragic and is a humanitarian tragedy that is why we support ceasefire, we support release of war hostages, and we support the two-state solution, we are working with Kuwait and some other partners to provide more humanitarian assistance to the people in need," he added.
When asked about the purpose of his visit to Kuwait, the EU official said; "It is important for the EU to engage with Kuwait on the bilateral level, we have good relations, and we would like to strengthen those ties.
"This visit is very important for me to understand Kuwait's political point of view, trade and investment. We already have a good partnership, but we seek to building more concrete elements in the future and coordinate its plans, projects and infrastructure in line with EU's priorities," he stressed.
He noted that the meetings he held this morning with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah are "very significant to understand the expectations and priorities in terms of improving bilateral ties." Kuwait, said Michel, "can count on the EU, we appreciate the ties we have built together for many decades, this year we celebrate 40 years of bilateral cooperation between the EU and Kuwait, we can surely look at the future with optimism we feel that we have good dialogue with mutual respect and we are absolutely convinced that we are able to work closely with each other in the future. (end) bb

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