May 21 (Kosovo Times) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a keynote speech, “Our shared future: Building coalitions and winning consent”, at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies called for coalition of consent between the West and Muslim world. He said Britain is strongly supportive of reforms to the international system that institutionalize close political relations between western and Muslim majority countries. APP reports that Secretary Miliband also reflected on the cooperation between the west and the Muslim world over the case of Kosovo which is more than 90% Muslim.

“And it is the basis of our very active (joint) involvement in securing Kosovo its independence, so that it can move on from the atrocities of the 1990s and build a more peaceful and prosperous future. We very much hope that the Organization of the Islamic Conference will affirm its support for Kosovan independence next week.”

Calling for a ‘coalition of consent’ between the West and the Muslim world, he acknowledged the West’s legacy on the landscape of the Middle East and South Asia and the ‘sense of bitterness, distrust and resentment’ the invasion of Iraq has aroused.

Miliband argued the need to understand the Muslim world better, and work with Muslim majority countries in new ways to forge consent and tackle seemingly intractable global problems.

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