The Secretariat of the International Energy Forum is publishing this collection of articles on dialogue among energy-exporting and energy-importing countries after four years of activity and in tribute to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah. then Crown Prince, proposed in his inaugural address to the 7th International Energy Forum Ministerial, held in Riyadh in November 2000, the establishment of a permanent Secretariat to enhance and provide continuity to the process of informal dialogue among Energy Ministers that started in Paris, France in 1991.