The June meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council of EU Foreign Ministers will be discussing a Malta initiative that advocates closer relations between the EU and the Arab League.

For this, Malta is proposing a meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU and Arab League to discuss various issues such as development, energy security, climate change, reform and the situation in the Middle East, in an effort to further the politics of moderation, the Department of Information said.

For the first time, seven Arab League foreign ministers, including the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Jordan, and Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa, were at the GAERC in Brussels on Monday to discuss the Arab Peace Initiative.

The meeting focused on the Arab Peace Initiative but the participants referred to their interest in getting together on other matters at further meetings.

Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, speaking in Maltese, told the Arab League ministers and secretary-general that they were to take with them the message that the EU was ready to engage with them on issues of common interest and concern in an agenda wider than that being discussed.

“We are neighbours, or at most, neighbours of neighbours, and it is imperative that we work together,” Dr Frendo emphasised.

He said: “We are for the politics of moderation and should not allow space for extremism. These politics of moderation should be the fulcrum of all our action. However, for the politics of moderation to prevail we need to provide them with successes so that people on the ground can reap the dividend of moderation”.

After the meeting, Dr Frendo had a meeting with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Ziad Abu-Amr, whom he had invited to visit Malta.

Earlier, Dr Frendo also had a meeting with South African Foreign Minister Zuma at which they discussed bilateral, EU and Commonwealth issues.