EU, Arabs meet at first summit in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh
European and Arab leaders gather Sunday for their first
summit aimed at stepping up cooperation on trade, security and migration while
the EU-Brexit stalemate looms on the sidelines.
Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi hosted last-minute
preparatory meetings with the European Union before he opens the two-day summit
at 5:00 pm in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
Europeans view the summit, EU sources told AFP, as a way to
protect their traditional diplomatic, economic and security interests while
China and Russia move to fill a vacuum left by the United States.
The summit in the southern Sinai desert is heavily guarded
by Egyptian security forces who are fighting a bloody jihadist insurgency a
short distance to the north.
Climate change, migration, trade and investment are on
Sunday's agenda, EU sources said. Conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya are to be
discussed on Monday.
Arab League hosts said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will
also be raised.
European leaders first mentioned the summit in Austria in
September amid efforts to agree ways to curb the illegal migration that has
sharply divided the 28-nation bloc.
But checking migration is just part of Europe's broader
strategy to forge a new alliance with its southern neighbours.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini insists that the
gathering in Egypt of around 40 heads of state and government is about much
more than migration.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council of EU member
countries, met Sunday with Sisi to help set the agenda, EU sources said.
Most of the 24 European heads of state and government who
have confirmed their attendance have already arrived in the Red Sea resort,
they added.
British Prime Minister Theresa May was due to arrive later
Sunday.
China, Russia
Apart from Sisi, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and
King Salman of Saudi Arabia will attend from the 22-member Arab League, based
in Cairo.
Most of the other Arab leaders are due to attend except
Syria's Bashar al-Assad, whose country was suspended from the Arab League over
the civil war, and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir.
A UN official warned that Europe's failure to bridge
divisions on migration "risks blocking all the other discussions" at
the summit.
The EU has struck aid-for-cooperation agreements with Turkey
and Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli, which has sharply cut the flow of
migrants since a 2015 peak.
But the official said broader cooperation with the Arab
League, which includes Libya, is limited without the EU being able to speak in
one voice.
Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Tunisia and Libya,
said the Arabs are also grappling with divisions since the Arab Spring
revolutions in the last decade.
An EU source said there will "be no deal in the
desert" when asked if EU leaders would huddle together to explore ways to
break the logjam over Britain's looming exit from the bloc on March 29.
Brussels has stood united against May's requests to reopen
the November divorce agreement in order to help it pass the British parliament.
However, the issue is due to come up when Tusk holds a
one-to-one meeting with May in Sharm el-Sheikh.
EU sources said the first EU-Arab summit is all the more
important as the United States "disengages" from the region while
Russia and China make inroads.
"We don't want to see this vacuum soaked up by Russia
and China," one of the sources told AFP.
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Salih tackles bilateral ties, cooperation with Sisi in Egypt
Iraqi President Barham Salih has tackled along with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi bilateral ties as well as cooperation to resolve conflicts in the region. A statement by Salih's office said he, "met on Sunday, on the sidelines of the Arab-European Summit, with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi."
