FM: Yemen Friends to meet in New York in September

An official source at the Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends of Yemen will be held on September 25 in New York. The meeting, which will be held on sidelines of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly, will be held under the joint chairmanship of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, the source added. The source praised hosting of Saudi Arabia for the New York meeting ,which reflects the Kingdom's keenness on the success of the group, and the distinct level reached by the relationship of the two countries and the two peoples. The source revealed that the meeting would discuss three key themes, which are the political, economic and security themes. The political theme will deal with the developments related to the implementation of the GCC-brokered initiative and its mechanism, especially the progress in the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) and the underway preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2014. In the economic theme, the meeting will assess the level of the implementation in the donors pledges for Yemen stated in the donors meeting in Riyadh and the meeting of Friends in New York held in last September, as well as the progress in the implementation of the economic reforms approved within the mutual accountability. While the meeting will discuss ,in the security theme, the developments related to the restructuring of the armed and security forces and the Yemeni efforts made in the field of counterterrorism and consolidation of the security and stability. The source pointed out that the Yemeni government would present in the meeting three working papers covering the three themes. The communication is underway between the Foreign Ministries in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Britain to prepare for the meeting, the source concluded.