The participation of His Highness the Crown Prince, as a delegate of His Majesty King Abdullah II, in the summit held in Croatia for the third year, reflects the level of relations that Jordan has built with the countries of the group, as well as an increasing awareness of the Kingdom's role in issues that affect the security of the Mediterranean and the Middle East together. Jordan, by virtue of its location, relations, and political experience, is no longer just a country affected by what is happening around it, but a partner in the discussion about the future of the region.
The importance of His Highness the Crown Prince's speech is that it did not treat the region's security as a separate military file. Calming tensions, ensuring freedom of navigation in international waterways, protecting supply chains, and energy security have all become parts of one equation. War may start in one place, but its effects do not stop at its borders; they reach the markets, raise prices, put pressure on energy resources, disrupt trade, and weaken growth opportunities.
Jordan knows this fact well. The Kingdom, although not a party to the conflicts raging in the region, bears part of their security and economic repercussions. Therefore, the Jordanian call to reduce escalation and address the root causes of crises is not just a diplomatic position, but stems from the experience of a state that is actually paying the price of instability in its surroundings.
But one cannot talk about real regional stability without placing the Palestinian issue at the center of the scene. This point in particular reflects the steadfastness of the Jordanian vision, which has always emphasized that ignoring the issue or treating it as a secondary file will not lead to sustainable peace.
The scene in Gaza, accompanied by humanitarian suffering and difficulties in the delivery of aid, including aid coming from Jordan, alongside the escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem and settler attacks, are all indicators that the region is still far from real stability.
Therefore, His Highness the Crown Prince's emphasis on rejecting attempts to displace Palestinians, considering it a violation of international law, and that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve fair and lasting peace. This is a message that goes beyond the Jordanian position to remind the international community that peace cannot be built on bypassing the rights of an entire people or managing the conflict indefinitely.
In parallel with the political and security files, His Highness the Crown Prince's speech carried another dimension that is no less important: the economic future. Jordan does not look at its relationship with Europe only from the perspective of aid or support, but from the perspective of partnership, investment, and mutual interests.
Here specifically, the opportunity to transform Jordan's strategic location into a real economic value appears. Renewable energy, electrical interconnection, railways, digital interconnection, infrastructure, logistics corridors, all of which are areas that can make Jordan a more important link between Europe and the Middle East.
More importantly, these projects do not only mean numbers and investments. They mean job opportunities, the transfer of knowledge and technology, the enhancement of education and skills, and the opening of new markets for the Jordanian economy. They also create common interests that make stability an economic goal as much as it is a political and security goal.
Hence, the reference to the Jordanian-European Investment Conference that the Kingdom will host in November next year is of particular importance. The next phase must not be content with talking about Jordan's strategic location, but to actually invest this location, turn opportunities into projects, ideas into partnerships, and partnerships into results that the citizen and the economy feel.
In the end, what distinguishes the Jordanian presence at 'Med 9' is that it combines the realism of a country that knows the risks of the region, and the ambition of a country that wants to be part of shaping its future. Jordan does not have the luxury of isolation from its surroundings, but it has something more important: the ability to build bridges when gaps widen.
From here, Jordan's strength does not lie in its location alone, but in its ability to turn its location into a partnership, its stability into an opportunity, and its political voice into influence.
