Dr John Chipman, Director-General and Chief
Executive, IISS
Good morning, thank you very
much. A very good morning to you, thank
you very much. Your Majesty, Your Royal
Highnesses, Your Highnesses, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 7th
IISS Manama Dialogue and to our formal opening this morning. Allow me to thank His Royal Highness Prince
Salman for his warm patronage of our Opening Dinner last night, at which we had
a wonderful intellectual aperitif for our formal deliberations starting today.
As is our custom, our
plenaries, all addressed by leaders of full ministerial rank, are on the
record, while the special sessions that will be led by ministers, senior
officials and influential national security advisers and specialists are off
the record. We know that during this
Manama Dialogue many dozens of bilateral meetings are already scheduled to take
place, and the IISS is happy through this summit to be able to provide some of
the diplomatic oil that can ease the wheels of regional strategic discussions.
Those discussions will
naturally be intense owing to the very considerable range of issues that now
confront the region and the range of actors, both state and non‑state, that are
seeking to shape, for better or for worse, the security agenda.
There is a much greater need, and a much greater appetite, for the states of
this region to engage directly in helping to shape a new political and security
dispensation in Afghanistan. As the
government in Baghdad is still to take full form so many months after an
election, there will be interest at this summit in how the states of the area
assist in the creation of a balanced political settlement in Iraq. We shall also be debating the three conflicts
in Yemen, and the way in which the outside world can maintain the diplomatic
promise of non-interference in the internal affairs of the country while
supporting a genuine process of modernisation that brings a measure of
stability to the state and its citizens.
With the prospect of a
resumption of talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran on nuclear issues, and
given the presence at this Manama Dialogue of most of the concerned states and
actors, then this meeting can serve, as it already has done, as an opportunity
to air some ideas as to how an agreement could be framed that is acceptable to
all parties. Cooperation among the
regional states and outside powers including Asians, Europeans and North
Americans is now operating in a number of fields, including the fight against
piracy. This summit will look at
maritime security cooperation specifically as well as more broadly military
cooperation between friends and allies.
To what extent will the
security agenda be shaped by outsiders, and how much can those inside the
region do to set both the terms of the debate and the conditions for regional
conflict resolution? As the states of
this region further globalise, insulation from the influences and interests of
those with whom they now engage is unachievable and probably undesirable. But equally it is right that the states of
this region be the authors of their own strategic scripts and the shapers of
their own regional security architecture.
This Manama Dialogue can serve as an incubator for habits of
wide-ranging and inclusive regional security dialogue, confidence building, and
cooperation. We shall sustain the Manama
Dialogue process over the coming months and years in the service of this
aim. I said the leaders of the region
should be framing the debate.
We are honoured and delighted
that His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to deliver the keynote
address to the Manama Dialogue. The
excellent relations between Jordan and the UK, home of the headquarters of the
IISS, are well known. Its splendid
relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain, the place where the IISS has newly
established its regional offices, are also widely appreciated.
Jordan is strategically placed
between the Levant and this Gulf region and has over many years played a really
important role in providing training, enhancing capability and building
military cooperation with many states in the region. At a time of recent conflict the country
welcomed Iraqis, giving them refuge and helping to sustain a wealth of talent
that in due course could return and help rebuild the country. Jordan has been a specially positioned
proponent of Arab‑Israeli peace and an advocate for well‑balanced regional
relations amongst the states and peoples of the Gulf. His Majesty is a military leader with the
strategic vision persistently to argue for the perspective of the region being
better understood in the councils of Europe, North America, and indeed
Asia. The national security leaderships
of the Gulf and of those constituencies are well‑represented in this room. They await, sir, your words, your thoughts
and your ideas.
Your Majesty, the floor, and
this podium, [are] yours.
