We have a very crowded agenda today because after this plenary on security in a global context, we will move after lunch to some very intense breakout groups. These offer an opportunity to delve into real policy detail on four separate subjects that affect Gulf security and will be off the record, so it is there where we have even higher expectations of policy generation than we might in the more public plenaries. At 5pm this evening, there will be a live Al Arabiya debate with Dr Barham Saleh, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed, the Bahraini foreign minister, and other personalities. This will show some of the vibrancy of the debate on security in this part of the world, and it is a way for us to communicate to the broader public in the Gulf Arab world, as there are several million viewers of this programme.
I have three important announcements to make. Firstly, I would like to thank very much the person who will soon be our first speaker in this third plenary, Secretary of State for Defence the Rt Hon John Hutton, for attending this Manama Dialogue. John Hutton, who has a long-standing interest in and understanding of military and defence affairs, and has even written a book on Kitchener’s men, became Secretary of Defence only in October. We were very honoured that his first public speech in the United Kingdom was on Afghanistan at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and that he felt it very important that he engage also as soon as he could with this region in this Manama Dialogue, and in this Kingdom of Bahrain, where the United Kingdom has had a long, happy and historically strong relationship.
Secondly, about 10 days ago I was fortunate to have a long meeting with the national security advisor of India, MK Narayanan, the day after the tragedy of Mumbai. During that meeting, he reconfirmed his interest in representing India at this Manama Dialogue. Since then, the circumstances in India have become very trying, and all senior cabinet ministers or agents of government related to problems of defence and national security have been asked to stay home. However, we are very fortunate to have here Sanjaya Baru, who was for four years the official spokesman and media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and continues to be an advisor. He has recently contributed to his thinking and his speeches, including the major speech he gave a few weeks ago to parliament. He is authorised to be here and represent the Indian perspective, as well as his own personal view, on the trials and tribulations that the government is going through with its neighbours and in the region in the aftermath of the tragedies in Mumbai.
Thirdly, there have been some rumours in some elements of the regional press that neither the IISS nor the Kingdom of Bahrain extended appropriately formal invitations to senior representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran to attend this Manama Dialogue. This is not true. Both of us did so, and 10 days ago or so, I spent two and a half hours in Tehran dealing with one of the three most powerful people in the Islamic Republic of Iran discussing the attendance of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the highest level at this summit. We had confirmations from three different individuals that they would attend, and all have failed to attend. We would just wish to say that it was not for lack of effort of either the IISS or the Kingdom of Bahrain that for reasons for reasons unknown to us, a senior personality from the Islamic Republic of Iran is not here to give voice to the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and to give their perspective on the way in which they would wish to engage in this region.
With that said, I would like to open this third plenary on security in a global context and invite John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Defence, to address us. Thank you.