London (UNA/WAM) - Abdullah Alaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, participated in a ministerial roundtable held by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on "Tackling Water Security through the Climate, Nature and Development Nexus," with the aim of highlighting the need for urgent collective action and sustained leadership on the global water crisis.
Baroness Chapman, UK Minister of State for International Development, Latin America and the Caribbean, chaired the session, which brought together ministers, including those from Senegal, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Nepal, and Bangladesh, as well as senior leaders from key multilateral institutions and international organizations, including the European Commission, the World Bank, UNICEF, UN-Water, WaterAid, and the World Commission on Water Economics, to identify priority areas for cooperation over the next year to achieve a systemic transformation in addressing water across the climate, nature, and development nexus.
During the session, Alaa highlighted the UAE's efforts to prepare for the 2026 UN Water Conference, stressing that the conference aims to focus on accelerating the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal XNUMX, which he said "is a catalyst and enabler for all sustainable development goals and all our global societal, environmental, and economic goals."
Based on the ministerial roundtable discussions, participants agreed to use the critical period of the coming year to build and sustain leadership in water, sanitation, and hygiene, enabling the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals. They also agreed to work on building multilateral partnerships to advance scalable, innovative, and comprehensive solutions to the water crisis, and to collaborate with existing UN processes to promote the integration of water into their international agenda.
Alaa also participated in a reception hosted by His Majesty King Charles III on water and climate, in cooperation with WaterAid, at Buckingham Palace. This ministerial participation took place days after the organizational session of the 2026 UN Water Conference, held on March 3, 2025, at UN Headquarters in New York, during which more than 70 participants from Member States and stakeholders presented their recommendations on the conference's six interactive dialogue topics.
The main themes are scheduled to be determined during the high-level preparatory meeting to be convened by the President of the General Assembly on July 9, 2025.
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