MANAMA — Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Shiekh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, chaired on Thursday the second meeting of the Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council at Sakhir Palace, in which officials from both sides have participated.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prince Salman welcomed Crown Prince, and his accompanying delegation, in Bahrain, expressing the depth of the deep-rooted fraternal relations between the two brotherly countries, stressing the keenness of the Kingdom of Bahrain to develop and consolidate bilateral cooperation to broader horizons in a way that enhances common interests.

For his part, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman expressed his pride in visiting the Kingdom of Bahrain, stressed the importance of the Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council and its subsidiary committees as an effective tool to push the two countries’ relations for further progress and benefit from the available capabilities and invest them appropriately.

The two sides also reviewed the report of the General Secretariat of the Council, which explains the efforts made by the subsidiary committees to achieve the aspirations of the leadership and the peoples of the two brotherly countries, and the outcomes, recommendations and initiatives of the committees’ meetings, and their recommendations and initiatives.

The two sides expressed their satisfaction with the positive results reached in these meetings and the recommendations and initiatives that would enhance the ongoing cooperation in various fields, and stressed the importance of continuing to support and develop bilateral coordination between the two countries.

The two sides affirmed the continuation of strengthening cooperation and consultation on regional and international issues of common interest, and pushing their political action at the bilateral and international levels to broader horizons, and for the benefit of the two countries, their peoples, and the peoples of the region for security, stability and prosperity. In this regard, an agreement was reached on a number of initiatives centered on the scheduled political consultations between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, coordinating work to counter extremist ideology among young people in the two kingdoms and drying up its sources.

In addition, to coordinating work to support candidates of the two kingdoms in regional and international organizations and bodies, and coordinating the implementation of joint courses for young diplomats in the two countries, as well as strengthening communication and cooperation between the consular authorities and coordinating positions on bilateral and international issues between the delegations of the two countries in New York and Geneva.

The two sides stressed the importance of continuing to strengthen joint work in the security and military fields, and in this context, the two sides reached a number of initiatives that would enhance cooperation and coordination in the following areas: "consultation in the field of security and military cooperation, enhancing cooperation in the field of cyber security, facilitating the procedures for transit of goods and trucks across borders, as well as facilitating the procedures for travelers through air and land ports, networking, and electronic linking between the two ministries of interior in a number of fields.

The two sides expressed the importance of strengthening and developing economic relations to serve common interests and increasing economic cooperation between the two countries, in agreement to enhance means of cooperation on international climate policies, and to focus on emissions rather than sources through the application of the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) approach, and the Middle East Green initiative, seeking to establish a regional complex for the extraction, use and storage of carbon.

The two sides also agreed to activate a number of initiatives, including cooperation in the educational, sports, cultural, health and entertainment fields, and media coordination and cooperation, in addition to enhancing cooperation in the field of tourism, youth, and social development. The two sides also agreed to cooperate and exchange expertise regarding non-profit organizations and ways to develop them in both countries, and to launch a number of initiatives dealing with the telecommunications, information technology, as well as environment and infrastructure sectors.

At the conclusion of the works of the second meeting of the Council, the two princes stressed the strong ties that unite the two brotherly countries based on solid historical foundations, and expressed their aspiration to the upcoming meetings of the Council to propose more common visions to strengthen and deepen relations between the two countries, and stressed the continuation of the two countries, on this approach to establish a prosperous future in which more accomplishments are achieved for the development and prosperity of the two countries, in order to achieve the aspirations of the two wise leaderships in enhancing security and stability. — SG