KUWAIT CITY – Arab and African leaders ended a two-day summit in Kuwait Wednesday by calling for closer cooperation on the political and economic levels, as well as in the fight against terrorism. The leaders issued the Kuwait Declaration which called for accelerating economic integration in the Arab world. They called for the creation of a joint “Africa-Arab Financing Mechanism” to fund programs and projects, under a plan adopted at the second summit in Libya three years ago. Addressing the summit on behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called for enhancing all ways of cooperation between Arab and African countries and removing all constraints, as there are some elements who try to harm these relations, disrupt their progress. The Kingdom emphasized that the focus on the goal of development and investment requires the settlement of disputes by peaceful means in a manner which preserves the legitimate rights of the concerned parties and leads to the achievement of security and stability in our countries, indicating that the coordination between the Arab Peace and Security Council and African Peace and Security Council helps to address many of these differences. He said the Kingdom has provided development assistance to African countries over the past four decades including non-refundable aid totaling $30 billion. Saudi Arabia has also exempted loans worth $6 billion. The Saudi Fund for Development has provided soft development loans to finance 345 projects in 44 African countries in the health, education, housing, social, and infrastructure sectors with a total value of $6 billion. — Agencies
