Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) Meeting on Assistance for the Palestinians

October 8, 1999

An Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) Meeting on Assistance for the Palestinians will be held on October 14 (Thu) and 15 (Fri) in Tokyo (Foreign Ministry).
Mr. Yohei Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs, together with Mr. Knut Vollebaek, Foreign Minister of Norway, will co-chair this meeting. There will be participants from the Palestinian Authority (President Arafat) as the recipient party, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Tunisia representing the regional parties, and Canada, EU, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Russia, U.S., World Bank, U.N. and IMF representing the internatiional donor community.
The AHLC Meeting has been held mainly to coordinate and promote assisting countries' efforts for the Palestinians and to secure transparency of the activities of the donor and the recipient parties. With the background of the fact that the Sharm-el-Sheikh Memorandum this September opened the door to the implementation of the Wye Memorandum and the resumption of final status negotiations, the forthcoming sixth meeting has specific significance in further ripening opportunities to promote the Palestinian track of the Middle East peace process, by exchanging views on concrete ways of assistance by the international community for the Palestinians.

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