Yemeni, Sudanese, Ethiopian FMs prepare leaders’ summit

SANAA, Nov 1 (AFP) — The foreign ministers of Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia began a two-day meeting here Saturday to prepare a summit of their heads of state in Addis Ababa next month, Yemen’s Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said.

Kurbi said he, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail and Ethiopia’s Seyoum Mesfin would discuss “the preparatory working papers for the meeting of heads of state due to be held in Addis Ababa in December to continue the process of consolidating the grouping” between the three nations.

The three countries set up the “Sanaa grouping” in October last year, when Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi met in the Yemeni capital.

The grouping was formed to “help boost security and stability” in the Horn of Africa and the southern part of the Red Sea, Kurbi said, an AFP correspondent reported.

“Its role will not be complete until other countries of the region join” the grouping, which aims at enhancing security, political and economic cooperation, he said.