Paris: France and 14 other countries issued a joint appeal on Wednesday expressing their support for or intention to recognize the State of Palestine, calling on more countries to join them.

According to Qatar News Agency, the initiative, titled the "New York Call", was shared by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on X. The statement from the Foreign Ministers of these countries read: "We, Ministers of Foreign affairs of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, and Spain have already recognized, have expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration of our countries to recognize the State of Palestine."

The statement further invited all countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to join this call.

Among the signatories, nine countries-Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Portugal, Andorra, Malta, San Marino, and Luxembourg-are considering recognizing the State of Palestine for the first time.

In a related development, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK would officially recognize the State of Palestine unless Israel took certain actions, which the UK sees as positive steps.