The Minister for Asia and the Middle East visited Jordan on 26 and 27
June 2022.
Minister Milling reiterated the importance of the UK-Jordan
strategic partnership and the UK’s commitment to sustaining our
cooperation across diplomatic, development, economic and security
files.
The Minister met Jordanian Foreign Minister, HE Ayman Safadi, to
discuss the UK’s diplomatic partnership and our cooperation on a
number of regional issues. The Minister expressed her
appreciation for Jordan’s positive and constructive role as a
force for peace in the region.
Minister Milling thanked Jordan for its generosity in hosting
Syrian and other refugees from conflicts in the region.
The Minister visited Al Azraq refugee camp to see first-hand
UK-funded humanitarian programmes in support of Syrian refugees
and spoke to representatives from UN agencies and the Syrian
Refugees Affairs Directorate.
She announced £30 million in new UK Aid programme funding to
support learning recovery for 1.8 million host community and
refugee children impacted by almost 2 years of continuous school
closures. This includes support for 95,000 vulnerable girls and
1,500 children with disabilities to access education. This also
underpins the UK’s commitment for every girl to receive 12 years
of quality education.
The Minister saw a World Food Programme-contracted supermarket,
where refugees can exchange food vouchers to buy food and met
beneficiary households to hear directly about the situation in
the camp, the challenges they face and their hopes for the
future.
During her meeting with HE Dr Wajih Owais, Minister of Education,
Minister Milling witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding between the British Council and the Ministry of
Education in Jordan. This is the first of its kind which will
bring UK expertise to support the quality of education in Jordan,
through the enhancement of English language teaching nationwide
to empower young Jordanians to reach their full potential.
At a joint signing ceremony with H.E Nasser Shraideh, Minister Of
Planning And International Affairs, Minister Milling signed a new
£65 million Social Protection programme as part of ongoing UK
support to the government of Jordan to deliver on the National
Social Protection Strategy. This aims to improve services and
payments to the poorest and most vulnerable, helping Jordan
recover from COVID-19.
Minister Milling said:
The UK is committed to providing humanitarian support to refugees
in Jordan. We continue to fund cash assistance for refugees to
meet their basic needs (including shelter and food), and the
provision of protection services to children and people at risk.
Jordan is showing huge generosity in hosting refugees and it is
right that the international community continues to play its part
in supporting Jordan.
During the visit, Minister Milling also met the Minister of
Finance and welcomed Jordan’s commitment to taking forward vital
economic reforms. The Minister commended the launch of the
Economic Modernization Vision 2033, underlined the importance of
gender-inclusive and sustainable growth and highlighted the UK’s
commitment to continue follow through on the 2019 London
Initiative to support economic growth and job creation in Jordan.
Minister Milling also met a group of inspiring Jordanian women
active in political life, together with Minister of State for
Legal Affairs and Head of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on
Women, HE Wafa Beni Mustafa. She discussed how to ensure
inclusion and greater involvement of women in all aspects of the
political process as well as in the economy – no society can
reach its potential without the full participation of the female
half of its population.
The Minister also congratulated Classic Fashion Apparel Industry,
on concluding the first UK Export Finance backed deal in Jordan.
She welcomed the initiative which will support the opening of a
new apparel and textiles factory in Aqaba, creating thousands of
jobs in Jordan.
Minister Milling concluded:
I was delighted to make my first visit to Jordan as Minister.
Last year we celebrated 100 years of friendship between our
countries and the UK is fully committed to sustaining and
developing our unique strategic partnership into its second
century.
I expressed my gratitude for the Kingdom’s extraordinary and
generous role in supporting refugees from regional conflicts and
announced 2 major new UK-funded programmes totalling £95 million,
designed to support both vulnerable Jordanians and refugees.
I was also delighted to meet Jordanian ministerial counterparts
to discuss our diplomatic cooperation on regional issues and the
UK’s support for Jordan’s crucial economic and political
modernisation programmes.
