Dear friends of Europe! Please join with me today in celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the founding document of what is now the European Union (EU).
On 9 May 1950, Robert Schuman, Foreign Minister of France, set out his idea for a new form of political and economic cooperation in Europe, one which would make war between Europe’s nations impossible. Since then, together, we have built a continent promoting peace, sharing prosperity and human development. Choosing cooperation over confrontation, Europeans built in these seventy years the most successful peace project in history. Since then, the European Union has adapted and taken on many new challenges.
The EU has increased its footprint in the Gulf with the opening last year of a fully-fledged diplomatic mission – EU Delegation to Kuwait which is enabling us to deepen further our engagement both with Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The EU considers the State of Kuwait as an increasingly important partner and our ambition is to have a comprehensive and multidimensional cooperation covering political dialogue, economy and trade, sectoral, regional cooperation and aiming at deepening people-to-people contacts.
Relations do not revolve only around “dialogue” and we intend to widen the scope of our cooperation and build on concrete programmes and a common agenda. Kuwait was the first GCC member-state to sign a Cooperation Arrangement with the EU and the first to launch practical co-operation. Concrete projects are already planned or being considered within the three agreed priority areas of Counter-terrorism and Security, Development Cooperation and Economic Diversification. Official engagement is complemented by people-to-people exchanges, business-to-business dialogue, education and parliamentary exchanges as well as cultural diplomacy.
While we are expanding bilateral engagement, EU cooperation with Kuwait remains anchored with the Gulf Cooperation Council and our close partnership especially on the economic agenda and how we can mutually address our employment, trade and fiscal challenges. Kuwait’s consistent commitment to the GCC and the efforts of HH the Emir to resolve the Gulf Rift are strongly supported by the EU.
The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted the importance of multilateral institutions and the need for strengthened international cooperation and solidarity. Full use should be made of the available multilateral mechanisms –notably the World Health Organisation (WHO – to share scientific evidence, data, promote best practices and co-ordinate the global response. The EU is supporting global efforts and those in need during the present pandemic. The European Commission has mobilised more that €400 million for the WHO to boost global preparedness, prevention and containment of the virus. Most of these funds will support countries under particular strain and weaker health systems.
We applaud in this context the recent decision by Kuwait to provide $100 million funding to the WHO for COVID-19 related programmes, including $40 million announced at the Coronavirus Global Response Pledging Event organised 4 May by the EU together with partner governments and organisations in order to raise funds to accelerate the development and deployment of vaccination, treatment and diagnostics.
Allow me to conclude by wishing you all a blessed Ramadan and good health. Take good care and rest assured, we will meet again!
H.E. Dr. Cristian Tudor
Ambassador of European Union to Kuwait
