President Abdulla Yameen Abdulla Gayoom has returned to Male’ after concluding his official visit to Saudi Arabia, to attend the Arab Islamic American Summit held in Riyadh this Sunday.
During the visit, the President met individually with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the Crown Prince His Royal Highness Muhammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and the Deputy Crown Prince His Royal Highness Muhammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, at the side-line of the Summit, and discussed means to strengthen the development alliance between the Maldives and Saudi Arabia for the mutual benefit of the two brotherly countries and their peoples.
The purpose of the Arab Islamic American Summit was to reaffirm the commitment between Arab-Islamic nations and the United States in combating terrorism and violent extremism to ensure international peace, security and stability.
According to the Riyadh Declaration, the final communiqué released following Arab Islamic American Summit, the participants expressed gratitude and appreciation for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman for hosting the crucial Summit, thus marking a historical transformation in widening the prospects for Arab-Islamic relations with the United States in the future.
By the end of the Summit, it was resolved to further bolster the partnership between Arab-Islamic nations and the United States, and unify opinions around issues of mutual interest, in particular to double joint counter-terrorism efforts. The leaders pledged to denounce the intellectual roots of extremism and dismantle sources of funding for terrorist organizations in a new bid to eradicate violent extremism and terrorism. Cross-border intelligence sharing on foreign fighters and their movements in terrorist organizations was also flagged as a necessary counter-terrorism measure. At the same time, the leaders commended the readiness of Islamic countries to contribute 34,000 troops to the Islamic Military Collation, and welcomed initiatives underway to establish a Middle East Strategic Alliance by 2018 as well as a terrorist financing target centre to address terrorist financing. The recently inaugurated Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology was also praised for its strategic objectives to challenge intellectual, media and digital extremism and for its role in promoting coexistence and tolerance. The leaders emphasised firmly adhering to international counter-terrorism resolutions and to build the capacities of national, regional and international counter-terrorism institutions for effective implementation of objectives specified in these resolutions. Highlighting on youth disillusionment that drive young people to violence and extremism, the leaders stressed on the importance of nation-building that address grievances and ensure peace, well-being as well as economic, political and social security.
In the spirit of promoting coexistence and tolerance between countries, religions and cultures, and to challenge widespread misconceptions of Islam, the leaders resolved to convene cultural dialogues that demonstrate the values of peace, love, respect, tolerance and moderation in Islam and its overt rejection of all forms of violence and extremism. To this end, the leaders underscored the Saudi initiative to establish a centre for dialogue among religions.
The leaders of the Summit unanimously condemned Iranian regime’s hostile positions including the Iranian ballistic missiles program and its continuing violations of Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations that are antithetical to the principles of good neighbourhood, non-interference in domestic affairs of foreign countries and respect for independence, sovereignty and integrity of territories.
Moreover, joint actions to combat piracy and develop capabilities to tackle organized crime and drug trafficking across borders via land, sea and air were discussed.
Lastly, coordination and alignment of various cross-border positions in addition to knowledge exchange and capacity building between the Arab-Islamic nations and the United States on all levels were deliberated to thoroughly follow up on the implementation and progress of the Riyadh Declaration.
