It has now been 10 years since the first edition of the now renowned « Arab-Belgian Diplomatic Business meeting » organized by the Arab-Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, in close relation with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Linklaters, on Tuesday 29 January 2019.

On the strength of its increasingly wide reputation, this highly prized event gathered more than 140 participants with top-level personalities!

The ABLCC had the honour to welcome HE Riad SALAME, Gouvernor of the Banque du Liban and HE Raoul DELCORDE, Ambassador and Director Middle-East North Africa, FPS Foreign Affairs, as guest speakers.

HE Raoul Delcorde gave us a comprehensive and up-to-date overview about matters of greatest importance for Belgium in the Middle East and North Africa.

HE Riad Salame expended on the situation in the MENA region and the challenges faced by lebanon in this context.

Among the prestigious personalities were also: HE Cecile Jodogne, State Secretary of the Brussels-Capital Region, in charge of Foreign Trade, and HE Raed Charafeddine, first Vice-Governor of the Banque du Liban.

The ABLCC was also particularly delighted to welcome 24 Arab and Belgian Ambassadors.

On the Belgian side we welcomed:

• HE Pierre GILLON, Ambassador of Belgium in ALGERIA
• HE Sibille DE CARTIER D’YVES, Ambassador of Belgium in EGYPT
• HE Hendrik VAN DE VELDE, Ambassador of Belgium in JORDAN & IRAQ
• HE Piet HEIRBAUT, Ambassador of Belgium in KUWAIT & BAHRAIN
• HE Hubert COOREMAN, Ambassador of Belgium in LEBANON
• HE Marc TRENTESEAU, Ambassador of Belgium in MOROCCO & MAURITANIA
• Mrs. Danielle HAVEN, Consul General in PALESTINE
• HE Bart DE GROOF, Ambassador of Belgium in Qatar
• HE Dominique MINEUR, Ambassador of Belgium in SAUDI ARABIA
• HE Michel-Etienne TILEMANS, Ambassador of Belgium in TUNISIA & LIBYA
• HE Peter CLAES, Ambassador of Belgium in the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

On the Arab side we welcomed:

• HE Najeem AL-ABRI, Ambassador of Oman, Dean of the Arab diplomatic Corps
• HE Abdulrahman S. ALAHMED, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia
• HE Dr Yousef BATAINEH, Ambassador of Jordan to Belgium
• HE Dr. Mutrif Siddig Ali NIMMERY, Ambassador of Sudan to Belgium
• HE Dr Bahiya Jawad ALJESHI, Ambassador of Bahrain to Belgium
• HE Jasem Mohamed AL BUDAIWI, Ambassador Kuwait to Belgium
• HE Mohamed Taha MUSTAFA, Ambassador of Yemen to Belgium
• HE Mohamed AMEUR, Ambassador of Morocco to Belgium
• HE Mohamed Issa ABUSHAHAB, Ambassador of United Arab Emirates to Belgium
• HE Abdulrahman Bin Suleiman AL-KHULAIFI, Ambassador of Qatar to Belgium
• HE Fadi HAJALI, Ambassador of Lebanon to Belgium
• HE Khaled EL BAKLY, Ambassador of Egypt to Belgium
• HE Mohamed Ridha BEN MOSBAH, Ambassador of Tunisia to Belgium
• HE Abdalrahman ALFARRA, Ambassador of Palestine to Belgium
• Mr. Nureddin MAZEN, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Embassy of Libya
• Dr. Fadil Abdul Hussein AL RAHIM, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Embassy of Iraq

Through this gathering, the ABLCC aims at shedding light on the importance of Arab-Belgian relations whilst contributing accurate and up-to-date information on the various developments in the Arab-world thanks to the expertise and unique insight of their distinguished guests.

The walking lunch format - for which the ABLCC opted - presented a good opportunity for the participants to discuss in person with BELGIAN and ARAB AMBASSADORS, to develop business relations, and to lay the foundation for future collaboration.

As usual, this was a successful event and we are looking forward to the next edition!