Issue: Water management

This issue contains 4 sections.

Water is important part of Middle East peace

News item | 22-10-2008

Water management is an important element in the Middle East peace process and the Netherlands is making available its expertise in this area. Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen made this statement today during talks with Abdallah Al-Dardari, Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs.

To safeguard water supplies in the Middle East, the countries in the region need to work together. ‘This issue transcends national borders and is ideally suited to bringing the different sides together,’ said Mr Verhagen.

The talks also covered relations between Syria and Lebanon and the promotion of respect for human rights.

The Syrian deputy prime minister is visiting several other European countries as well as the Netherlands. He is closely involved in Syria’s economic reforms and the negotiations on improving cooperation between his country and the European Union. The Netherlands believes that a formal cooperation agreement between the EU and Syria must be accompanied by Syria playing a more sustained and constructive role in the peace process.

Mr Al-Dardari will give a public lecture on Syria’s political and economic policy, now and in the future, in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague on 23 October.