THE 4th IISS REGIONAL SECURITY SUMMIT
THE MANAMA DIALOGUE
Manama Saturday 8 December 2007
THE US AND THE REGIONAL BALANCE OF POWER
Opening Remarks
Dr John Chipman CMG,
Director-General and Chief Executive, IISS
These plenary sessions are on the record. We have television cameras, live feeds and reporters in the room, so all the statements, questions, answers and discussion in this plenary session this morning and tomorrow are fully on the record. This afternoon, there are four breakout groups on very specific subjects. All delegates have been assigned to one group, usually the group for which the person has volunteered. These groups will be addressed by deputy ministers and senior officials and will go into some detail on regional security issues. All the statements, questions and discussions in the breakout groups are strictly off the record and not for attribution. After the conference ends on Sunday, the broadcaster Al-Arabiya will be holding a live television debate with some of the distinguished panellists here today so that the issues raised in the Manama Dialogue can have a wider airing and debate in the Arab world. The IISS will publish a report after the summit that gives a sense of the broad themes discussed. We hope the results of this summit will inform our IISS work in areas of other thinkers represented here.
Let me now move to open the first plenary of this fourth IISS Manama Dialogue. This opening plenary is on the United States and the region. We are truly honoured and delighted that our opening speaker is the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. He has been on a very comprehensive tour of this area, travelling to the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq, looking at and examining three different US and Allied campaigns with three different goals and strategies that affect the security of this region, as well as international stability. He has arrived here showing his strong interest in defence consultations and diplomacy. We were delighted to receive the Secretary in June in Singapore at the IISS Shangri‑La Dialogue, as well as to receive him here six months later in this region. The US defence relationship with the GCC states, its security role in Iraq, and its policy towards Iran are three huge questions that invite interest and even sometimes contention. This morning we look very much forward to Secretary Gates’s statement on these and other issues affecting the US relationship with this region and internationally.
