Delegations from Sudan, Palestine and Comoros have arrived in India as part of the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM) scheduled for January 31, 2026.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said he was “delighted to welcome” Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Sudan, as he arrived in New Delhi to participate in the India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ meeting, noting that the visit would further strengthen people-to-people ties between the two countries.
In an X post, Jaiswal said: “Delighted to welcome H.E. Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Republic of Sudan, for the second India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The visit will further strengthen people-to-people ties between India and Sudan.”
He also welcomed the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, saying in another post: “Warm welcome to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, H.E. @VarsenAghShahin, as she arrives in India to participate in the 2nd India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The visit reaffirms India’s partnership with the people of Palestine and the Arab world.”
According to a statement from MEA, both India and Sudan, in the first round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in Juba in December, discussed a full spectrum of bilateral relations, including capacity-building, human resource development, cooperation in health, technical and vocational training, trade, and people-to-people relations. The two sides had also agreed that the next round of Foreign Office Consultations would be held in New Delhi at a mutually convenient date.
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India is set to host the 2nd India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting for the first time on Saturday, which will be co-chaired by India and the UAE, and see participation by all 22 Arab countries via their Foreign Ministers, Ministers of State and other Senior Officials and the Arab League, as per a press statement by MEA.
The IAFMM will be preceded by the 4th India-Arab Senior Officials’ Meeting on Friday.
The meet, said the press note, is taking place after a 10-year hiatus, having last been held in 2016 in Bahrain. In the first such meeting, five priority verticals of cooperation: economy, energy, education, media and culture, had been identified.
The meeting on Saturday is expected to build on the existing cooperation and expanding and deepening the partnership. The India Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the highest institutional mechanism driving this partnership, which was formalised in March 2002 when India and the League of Arab States (LAS) signed an MoU institutionalising the process of dialogue.
A Memorandum of Cooperation was also signed to establish the Arab-India Cooperation Forum during the visit of the then Arab League Secretary General, Amre Moussa, to India in December 2008, and was subsequently revised in 2013 to reflect a revised structural organisation.
India is an Observer to the League of Arab States, a pan Arab body with 22 member States.
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