Speech by
H.E. Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani,
Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
At
The Second Gulf Security Dialogue
Held in Cooperation with the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Manama- Bahrain
3 December 2005
Their Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished audience,
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the government of the sisterly Kingdom of Bahrain for hosting this conference which is held in cooperation with the International Institute for Strategic Studies to conduct a dialogue on a vital issue of interest to all.
Tackling the issue of the perspective of the GCC international security relations is not an easy matter. It is my belief that we need to shed some light on the concept of the cherished security and on a number of firm principles which will clarify the general concept of this security.
The establishment of the GCC was aimed at achieving coordination and integration among its Member States with a view to materializing unity of those states through a mechanism of cooperation. Undoubtedly, the Arab Gulf region has a special strategic significance as a result of the existence of intricate, mingled and unique influential factors of political, economic and security dimensions, something which makes the region the focus of attention and concerns of effective countries of the international community. The importance of this region emanates from several reasons, including inter alia, the abundance of energy resources such as crude oil and natural gas which are vital to world economy and life besides the region strategic geographic location which represents a link between the world's continents and controls the international land, sea and air transportation lines.
Out of this perspective, we see major challenge at the internal level which calls, first of all, for the need to achieve political security through a comprehensive democratic reform based on constitution that ensures the rule of law and secures people's participation in shouldering the responsibility of governance that should provide equality of privileges and obligations as well as respect of the human rights.
The political security cannot be realized without the economic security. This can be materialized through serious plans to carry out an overall development process in all spheres in order to achieve all components of a comprehensive mobilization to face up against factors of social security imbalance in an effort to achieve security and be able to remedy demographic imbalance, extremism, the phenomenon of terrorism, drugs and trans-border crimes.
At the regional level, the countries of the region are confronting these challenges of chronic and new conflicts that have begun to emerge and are pending solution as the continuation of such conflicts could negatively affect the stability and security in the region. The requirements of security and defense constitute an obstacle on the way of allocating needed resources and funds for development and modernization priorities process, a matter which could, in turn, lead to feeding factors of tension and instability.
Although the GCC Member States have generally scored several successes on the security level within the framework of the Council, as is obviously manifest in the remarkable endorsement of the common strategy to combat terrorism-linked extremism. Yet these states still have a long way to go in this regard. They should observe the regional and the international balance on one hand and the security of the internal front on the other hand. There is an inseparable link between energy security and security strategy in as much as the matter should not be completely left to the discretion of the consumer countries. One cannot overlook the fact that the Arabian Gulf is the passageway for about half the global oil output, a fact which makes Gulf security a vital interest to major international players, especially the United States of America.
In the end of the day, Gulf security should be the responsibility of its nationals to shoulder and will depend basically on mutual confidence building and self-reliance. In reality, however, the international challenges and developments can be hard to overlook, while globalization is broadening its scope to cover various economic, financial, social, cultural and even political patterns and increasingly becoming a matter of fact that we have to acknowledge and deal with.
We should promote peaceful coexistence among world countries in this age of globalization, when world governments show the necessary political will to honor their obliging commitments and don't unthinkably rush to serve their own narrow interests at the expense of the collective interests shared in common by all parties. Such a pattern will be the best framework to ensure security.
On the other hand, the need to a foreign, especially American, military presence in the Gulf, was dictated by some realistic requirements, foremost of which being the need to a protection against the threats and the fallouts of the first and the second Gulf wars. Upon the substantive transformation in the nature of its objectives and missions following the end of the cold war, the North Atlantic Alliance Organization(NATO) is showing an increasing interest to play a practical role in the Middle East. It will not be, therefore, totally unthinkable to see such an interest be translated in the future into special plans of action and training courses to serve either the already existing security relations within GCC Member States or between them as a grouping and the rest of the world in general as per the binding security agreements.
International security arrangements, however, can be organized and ensured through other mechanisms that are not necessarily of purely military or security nature.
The global security arrangements can be organized by means of other mechanisms that don't entail the presence of foreign forces in the region, namely by means of conducting regular security consultations, providing means of sharing information, coordinating and cooperating in efforts aimed at redressing sources of threats. Such efforts should incorporate, in addition to the traditional allies of the region, the neighboring countries, the permanent Member States of Security Council and the Asian States which are directly involved in the circumstances of the region. Thus, another tributary is provided with a view of realizing and enhancing security and stability in the Gulf region.
Thank You.
