Sharm El-Sheikh, Cairo — The first EU-League of Arab States (LAS) summit started here on Sunday with the plenary session "Enhancing the Euro-Arab partnership and addressing global challenges together." The Saudi delegation is being led by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. During the two-day summit leaders from both sides will seek to strengthen Arab-European ties. They will also address a wide range of issues and common challenges, such as multilateralism, trade and investment, migration, security, and the situation in the region. The summit will also provide an opportunity for leaders to discuss the Middle East peace process and the situation in Yemen, Libya and Syria. Since the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2015, the EU and LAS have maintained an advanced relationship, including biennial ministerial meetings and annual meetings between the EU Political and Security Committee and the LAS Permanent Representatives. The EU and the LAS have also launched in 2015 a strategic dialogue to develop the Euro-Arab operational cooperation on security issues. The two regions are already major trade and investment partners. Collectively the EU is the first trading partner for the LAS. This is also the case for 11 individual members of the LAS. The EU is also the biggest investor in the LAS countries.
