Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean conducted an Official Visit to the United States of America from 23 September to 4 October 2019, visiting Washington DC and New York.
In Washington, a high-level delegation, led by PAM President Alia Bouran of Jordan, held meetings with Senior Officials from the White House National Security Council, the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Defence, USAID, as well as with prominent academics at leading think tanks.
In the course of the meetings, the key issues analyzed included: PAM proposal for the establishment of a mechanism of triage to address the fate of thousands of foreign terrorist fighters detained in North Eastern Syria and their families; the cooperation with the UN Security Council, and related bodies, in ensuring the harmonization of national laws on counter-terrorism; PAM support for national reconciliation in Libya; the Two-State solution for Israel and Palestine; the crisis between Egypt and Ethiopia on the access to the Nile water; facilitation of investments in the MENA and Sahel region; the reinforced cooperation between PAM and NATO and its commands; the enlargement of PAM to 34 countries with recent agreements with Qatar and UAE as Associate; as well as the support by the US Administration for recognizing PAM as a public international organization in the USA.
The meetings in Washington were instrumental for PAM and US officials to exchange views on strategic priorities in the Euro-Mediterranean region, map out opportunities for concrete cooperation on political, security and economic issues, as well as to reinforce the excellent relationship PAM already enjoys with the United States. PAM has already scheduled a follow-up visit to Washington to take place in April 2020, following the World Bank and IMF Spring Session, to hold additional bilateral meetings at the United States Congress.
In New York, PAM participated and contributed in the High-level Segment of the United Nations General Assembly. On the margins of the GA, PAM held a number of bilateral meetings with Senior UN Officials and Heads of national delegations to fine tune cooperation on counter-terrorism activities, support for peace support initiatives and negotiations in the Middle East, economic development in the MENA and Sahel regions, climate change, and population movements, among others.
Regarding Libya, PAM shall assist with the parliamentary dimension of the national reconciliation efforts, under the auspices and chair of the UN Special Representative for Libya, Mr. Ghassan Salame, in view of the Berlin Conference.
PAM was also asked to assist, by using its privileged channels of parliamentary diplomacy in the region, for the de-facto authorities in Sanaa to grant access for UN experts to the SAFER FSO oil tanker, anchored some 5 km off the coast of Yemen. This is necessary to assess the damage suffered by the structure since the beginning of the conflict, and for the UN to carry out any emergency maintenance work, if needed, to avoid a major environmental disaster.