Abu Dhabi, Feb. 19(BNA) Interior Minister Lieutenant-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa participated in the inauguration of the International Defence Exhibition and Conference "IDEX 2017" in Abu Dhabi.

The "IDEX 2017" was inaugurated by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai Ruler.

The inauguration was held in the presence of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and attendance of Defence Ministers, Army leaders, specialists and experts from 57 countries, in addition to 1235 local and international defence industry companies.

The Interior Minister hailed the organisational procedures taken by the UAE for the success of this major international gathering that is considered as a good opportunity to exchange expertise and experiences in defence and security fields and get briefed on the latest technology in the sector, in order to face security challenges. He highlighted the importance of the exhibition for being the largest platform for defence industries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Lt.Gen. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa applauded the advanced exhibited items that contribute in making the event as one of the distinguished international exhibitions. The minister also participated in the first meeting of the Interior Ministers of member countries of the International Security Work Group, that was launched under the name "Coalition", as part of an invitation by His Highness Lt-General Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan , UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and participation of Interior Ministries of Bahrain, Morocco, France, Italy, Spain and Senegal.

During the meeting, he expressed in his speech thanks and appreciation to UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister for this good gesture to form an international coalition to fight all forms of crimes. He praised the initiative for being a comprehensive vision in serving international security.

He asserted that with the development and spreading of cross-border crimes, there is urgent need for international coordination to fight them, as such tasks couldn’t be carried out by one country, especially if the crime has foreign sources, in addition to the emerging of new forms of organised crimes with innovative methods and high techniques. This required further international cooperation through legislations and alliances to internationally fight crimes and criminals.

During the meeting, a brief on the experience of the Kingdom of Bahrain in dealing with the use of social media in spreading and adopting terrorism was presented. At the end of the meeting, it was decided to launch the coalition as an international work group that cooperates to achieve security of societies through exchange of expertise and the best practices and passes the declaration of the coalition in five languages: Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish and English. These copies should be signed by the member ministers within three months of the date of the meeting.

They agreed that the Coalition’s General Secretariat will be based in UAE and it will be responsible of drafting the operational module of the coalition, including how new members could join and the work steps of sub-work teams within three months of the date of the meeting. The General Secretariat will announce suggested projects for those who want to take part in them from various interior ministries.

The coalition will also work to support cooperation between member countries through exchange of expertise, experiences and successful practices, especially in fighting cross-border organised crimes and preventative measures, as well as fighting all forms of extremisms and challenges facing police and security in monitoring borders. (MOI)