During the visit, MoS Muraleedharan will meet UAE Ministers and visit Dubai Expo 2020

Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan on Tuesday left for UAE to attend two-day(October 26-27) Ministerial Consultations of Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD).

This will be the sixth Ministerial Consultations of Abu Dhabi Dialogue, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

ADD is a regional, voluntary and non-binding consultative process between Asian countries of labour origin and destination, which serves as a platform to facilitate regional cooperation on contractual labour mobility, sharing of best experiences and learning from one another’s experience.

During the visit, the MoS External Affairs will have bilateral meetings with other Ministers, said the MEA. The MoS will also visit Dubai Expo 2020, it added.

ADD was established in 2008 as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Asian countries of labour origin and destination.

It consists of the twelve Member States of the Colombo Process (CP), namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam; and six Gulf countries of destination: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Malaysia.

Regular observers include the IOM, ILO, private sector and civil society representatives. The permanent secretariat is provided by the United Arab Emirates, and the current chair-in-office is Sri Lanka.

Earlier, the ADD Senior Officials Meeting was held through the virtual mode from May 24-27.

In a Joint Communiqué issued by the ADD after the Senior Officials Meeting on May 27, 2021, member states took note of the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on migrants across the region and underline the importance of taking into account measures to protect the health and wellbeing of migrants in all policy decisions.

They also reviewed the progress that had been made to-date in the operationalisation of the Comprehensive Information and Orientation Programme, and requested that the secretariat report back on the results of the CIOP programme at the next Ministerial Consultation.