Agreement signed to bring Islamic countries closer to UK

LONDON: A senior government minister has signed a historic agreement at the United Nations that brings the UK and Islamic world closer than ever before. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the UK Senior Foreign Minister, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UK and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), cementing further the relationship between the two.

The senior politician of Pakistani origin has long championed Britain’s interaction with Muslim countries by personally establishing a strategic relationship with the OIC.

In fact, she became the first British minister to speak at its conference in June 2011 in Astana, Kazakstan. Previously she had hosted the secretary-general of the OIC in London and visited its secretariat in Jeddah, while she was in Saudi Arabia for performing Hajj. This led to the appointment of Britain’s first special representative to organisation and its 57 members. Baroness Warsi has visited Pakistan five times during the past two and a half years in government, a country, which was so central to the formation of the Islamic Conference. (continue reading...)