An official delegation from Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has participated as observers in the International Meeting of the Chiefs of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies in the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, under the theme 'International Year of Peace and Trust – Humanity and Neutrality'.QRCS’s delegation comprised vice president engineer Ibrahim Hashim al-Sada, assistant secretary-general for Communication and Resource Development Mohamed Ahmed al-Beshri, and International Relations head Dr Aiham Ismail al-Sukhni.The two-day conference brought together leaders of the Red Crescent and Red Cross National Societies of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, along with representatives of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The meetings discussed key humanitarian challenges facing the Central Asia and Mena regions, including the impact of climate change, natural disasters, and armed conflicts; migration; and compliance with international humanitarian law.Participants also addressed how to develop principled humanitarian action, promotion of humanitarian diplomacy, and the role of National Societies as humanitarian auxiliaries to their governments.In a statement, QRCS’s delegation said this participation was aimed at building regional and international cooperation and contributing to the joint efforts to deal with global humanitarian challenges, inspired by QRCS’s mission of serving humanity and preserving human dignity without partiality or discrimination.In the presence of Nasser Ali al-Kaabi, chargé d'Affaires at Qatar's embassy in Turkmenistan, engineer al-Sada signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Maral Achilova, president of the National Red Crescent Society of Turkmenistan, to enhance cooperation, exchange of expertise, capacity-building, and adoption of best practices when conducting shared projects in the future.Both parties saw the MoU as a step to step up humanitarian partnership and integration within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, in alignment with the IFRC’s Strategy 2030, thus helping improve humanitarian response and provide quality services for the most vulnerable people in need.On the sidelines of the conference, QRCS’s delegation held coordination meetings with many officials from the participating fellow National Societies, including Dr Pavel Savchuk, president of the Russian Red Cross, Zafar Rakhmanov, president of the Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan, Elvira Amiralieva, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan, Jeyhun Mirzayev, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan, his deputy Shaban Shayev, and Nurali Odinaev and Dilorom Mirova, deputy secretaries-general of the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan.These meetings discussed areas of common cooperation and emphasized the importance of developing partnerships and exchanging expertise to enhance the efficiency of humanitarian response and expand the scope of joint work in the future, a statement added.
