Costa Rica last week resumed diplomatic relations with Kuwait, Bahrain and Yemen, according to a statement released Friday by the Foreign Ministry.

During a visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno met with the Foreign Minister of Kuwait Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, the Foreign Minister of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa and the Foreign Minister of Yemen, Abubakr A. Al-Kirbi. All meetings were fruitful and resulted in these countries planning to resume diplomatic relations with Costa Rica.

Stagno also met with the Syrian Foreign Minister Bashar Al-Assad to discuss establishing closer relations between the two countries, but he said the two leaders “still have not talked about reestablishing diplomatic relations.”

Stagno said resuming diplomatic relations with moderate Arab nations will allow for “a greater political and diplomatic closeness with the Arab and Islamic world” which could open up markets and attract foreign investment, the statement said.

Many Arab nations cut off diplomatic relations with Costa Rica in the 1980s after the country defied U.N. recommendations by maintaining its Israeli Embassy in Jerusalem, the statement said.

Costa Rica announced in August that it would relocate its Israeli Embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv (TT, Aug. 18).

-Tico Times