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Close and trusted partners: Jordan’s Foreign Minister in Berlin
Foreign Minister Maas is meeting his colleague Ayman Safadi at the Federal Foreign Office, © Florian Gaertner/photothek.net
Heiko Maas is meeting his colleague Ayman Safadi at the Federal Foreign Office today. Tomorrow the two Ministers will fly to Paris together for talks on the Middle East peace process.
Key partner in the region
In many spheres, Jordan has become an important partner for Germany in the Middle East during the last few years: German soldiers stationed at Jordan’s Al-Azraq air base are making a vital contribution towards the fight against the IS in Iraq. Jordan is supporting around 660,000 Syrian refugees on its territory – and is also including them in its COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
However, the main issue which Maas and Safadi will discuss at today’s talks in Berlin will be the Middle East peace process. Germany is coordinating closely with Jordan on this: today and during tomorrow’s flight to Paris, the two colleagues will discuss their expectations of tomorrow’s meeting with the French and Egyptian Foreign Ministers. The four states last met in Cairo in January in the Munich format to jointly explore confidence-building steps for the Middle East peace process. Today and tomorrow, the focus will again be on the normalisation of Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the Sudan and Morocco as well as on how this momentum can be used in the Middle East peace process. However, the expectations regarding the forthcoming elections in Palestine and in Israel will also play a role.
Furthermore, Maas and Safadi will exchange views on the situation in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.
Bilateral: Close political and social ties
Germany and Jordan have consolidated and intensified their relations during the last few years: the two countries have been conducting a strategic dialogue involving several ministries since 2018. There has been a German-Jordanian University since 2005 and the two states have been working together in the sphere of development cooperation for more than 60 years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany has adjusted the support it pledged to Jordan to the current needs. For example, Berlin has delivered 35 BOSCH test devices and around 75,000 COVID-19 test kits as well as 15 ventilators to Amman. And Jordan has stated that it needs two million vaccine doses from the international vaccine alliance COVAX, in which Germany is strongly engaged.