GCC Secretary General meets Secretary General of ASEAN

Riyadh, September 14, SPA -- Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC), Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Atiyyah met here today with
the Secretary General of ASEAN Dr. Surin Pitsuwan.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed a number of issues and
events of common interest, especially the developments of the
Palestinian cause, the peace process in the Middle East, the
situation in Iraq, the relations with Iran and its continued
occupation of the three islands of the United Arab Emirates and
developments of the Iranian nuclear file.

They emphasized the importance of peaceful solutions and constructive
dialogue to address all regional and international issues in addition
to developments in Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia.

They valued the results of the "World Conference on Dialogue" held on
July 16-18, 2008 in Madrid under the patronage and support of the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to
activate the dialogue between the followers of religions and
cultures. They praised the statement issued by the conference.

The two sides reviewed regional and international efforts to combat
terrorism and stressed that terrorism is a global intellectual
phenomenon and combating terrorism requires the unification of
efforts regionally and internationally and they renewed their
condemnation of all forms of terrorist acts, whatever might be a
source or place.

They also reviewed the economic relations between the two sides and
developments in this regard.

The two sides looked forward to further development and cooperation
in the relations between them.

The meeting was attended by Assistant Secretaries General and a
number of senior officials in the Secretariat as well as heads of
missions and states of ASEAN accredited to the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.

--SPA