http://www.english.hadhramaut.info Friends of Yemen 7th meeting kicks off in London [The Source: LONDON\Hadhramaut\Saba - Tuesday -29/April/2014] The 7th meeting of the Group of Friends of Yemen kicked off in London on Tuesday under a co-chairmanship of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and UK. The morning session of the Group's meeting was held in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) headquarters with the participation of senior officials and experts from 39 countries and regional and international organizations. The meeting was opened by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and then be jointly chaired by Minister for the Middle East Hugh Robertson, International Development Minister Alan Duncan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Turki bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz, and representatives of the donor countries and organizations in the group. The participants reviewed the latest developments in Yemen through three papers prepared by the Yemeni government covering the political, economic and security areas. They also discussed the proposal of the new mechanism of action aiming to activate the Group performance. It includes establishing three sub-groups (political, economic and security) tasked with identifying challenges, defining solutions and provide means and resources to overcome them as well as reporting to the Group's ministerial meetings. Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi chairs Yemen's delegation, which also includes Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mohammad al-Sa'adi, managing director of the Executive Bureau to accelerate absorption of donors' pledges Amat al-Alim Alsoswa and representatives of the Presidency and the Ministries of Defense and Interior. The Friends of Yemen group was established in January 2010 during a meeting at ministerial level of the group's state members held to coordinate international support for Yemen's efforts to achieve the comprehensive development, tackle the reasons behind instability and help the government fight terrorism. The group consists of 39 countries and regional and international organizations; they are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Turkey, the Netherlands, Algeria, Australia, Korea, Brazil, Malaysia, Czech, Denmark, India, Spain, Indonesia, Switzerland, Italy, Tunisia and Canada. The member organizations in the group are Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Arab League, European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), and OPEC.