By Nawab Khan
(With photos) BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (KUNA) -- The first-ever visit of a joint parliamentary delegation from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to the European Parliament accomplished its main goal, Kuwaiti MP Ali Saleh Al-Omair told Kuwait news agency (KUNA).
"The visit was without doubt fruitful and it achieved its main goal which was to strengthen the partnership between the GCC and the European Parliament, " he said after the end of the three-day visit of the GCC parliamentarians to Brussels on Thursday.
"We in the GCC are blessed with one religion and one language and common goals," he said, adding that "we have delayed a lot from moving from a Council to a Union." He described the meeting of the GCC delegation with the Speaker of the Belgian parliament Andre Flahaut and with the chairperson of the Belgian senate Sabine de Bethun on Thursday as very fruitful.
They discussed a number of issues, most importantly strengthening of the partnership between the GCC and the European Union and also the active role of Belgian parliament in this regard.
The GCC parliamentarians explained to their Belgian counterparts the composition and the functioning of the parliaments and legislative councils in the GCC countries.
The talks also covered regional issues such as the relations of the GCC with Iran, Iraq, Syria.
They explained about the GCC's concerns over Iran's nuclear programme and the Belgian side also shared this concern, said Al-Omair.
On Syria, they voiced great concern about the continuation of repression and killings of the Syrian people by the army.
The two sides discussed economic and trade cooperation and stressed the necessity of increasing exchange visits between the parliaments of the EU and Belgium and the GCC countries.
The GCC side also extended an invitation to the speaker of the Belgian parliament to visit the Gulf countries. (end) nk.tg KUNA 210937 Sep 12NNNN