Istanbul, 15/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Forum on 12-13 February in Istanbul that brought together Foreign Ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and its observer countries, as well as EU Member States and candidate countries, stressed in a press release the responsibility of the OIC and the EU to promoting universally shared values, and their commitment to defining problems emerging from cultural prejudices and political and economic injustices and to promoting solutions that will contribute to universal peace, welfare and stability. The Forum stated that the "two state" solution would contribute to bringing peace and security to the people caught up in the Middle East conflict and that greater co-operation would be needed. The Forum noted with appreciation the "the invitation of His Highness the Emir of the State of Qatar in his capacity as current Chairman of the OIC to host an OIC-EU Troika meeting in the second half of the current year in Doha".
The President of the EU Council, Josep Piqué declared to the Forum that Christian and Islamic cultures cannot be regarded as two mutually isolated compartments: "We Europeans are well aware of the major role Muslim intellectuals already played centuries ago as messengers of classic wisdom. Europe would be very different without this shared experience". The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs also stressed the Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona Process, which represented part of the "complex machinery especially suited to address our quest for better understanding" (for further details on the contributions, see EUROPE 4 February page 4).