Your Royal Highnesses, your Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fourth IISS Manama Dialogue, hosted in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The International Institute for Strategic Studies is striving significantly to expand its policy relevant research on the issues of security in this region, and between this region and others. We have analysed and continue to examine the classic security problems of great power interests in the Gulf; the balance of power; containment; deterrence; arms races and confidence-building measures; security pacts and regional security architecture.
We at the IISS are also working on transnational threats; the problems of sectarianism and intercommunity relations in the region; the economic underpinnings to security and development; political reform and regional stability; as well as energy security issues in the Gulf. In particular, the IISS is studying the implications of the push to develop civilian nuclear energy and the associated potential proliferation risk.
The Institute has contributed to further understanding of the difficult conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, examining social, political, developmental and military dimensions of these campaigns. We are also drafting an ambitious programme to examine the changing links between the Gulf and Asia. All this work – themes of this event – is undertaken by an international staff, addressing these issues with an international outlook, and a sharp eye for both factual detail and strategic perspective.
Next year, the IISS will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. An organisation that played a large role in the past, developing strategic thought relevant to the so-called east-west conflict has now grown to be a shaper of debate on regional conflict, global transnational issues, international political risk, and conflict resolution.
We are keen to bring the perspectives of this region into the mainstream of international strategic debate; involve regional analysts in our work; help to connect the debates here to those of other regions; and ensure also that IISS analysis is organically part of the region’s deliberations. We look forward to developing hand-in-hand our independent analytical and research abilities, and our independent role as a convener of government leaders for conflict resolution and dialogue.
This IISS Dialogue was inaugurated in December 2004. It has grown over the years and continues to develop. It is the only forum that seeks to bring together the national security establishments of the Gulf States, alongside the key outside powers engaged with this region. Government delegations to this summit have been led over the first three years by vice presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, defence ministers, interior ministers, national security advisers, chiefs of defence staff and intelligence chiefs, and often by a combination of such figures. By bringing together representatives of such different elements of the national security establishments of the participating states, the IISS and the Kingdom of Bahrain seek to ensure a comprehensive examination of regional security issues by the key policy makers involved.
We have no agenda of our own in convening this event, other than to provide multiple opportunities for both public and private consultations, bilaterally and multilaterally, between the participating states. The better to ensure a constructive regional security dialogue.
The IISS is a policy-relevant organisation. It hopes that some of its work can inform the thinking of government leaders in this region. We also intend that the interests and concerns expressed by officials here help us to ensure that the analysis we undertake in different forms, for the general public, our membership, for governments, and also for the private sector, is fed by a keen appreciation of both the immediate and long-term issues faced by societies and governments in this region.
We at the IISS wish to thank the Kingdom of Bahrain for the tremendous support that it gives to this event, and to the many offices, ministries, departments and agencies of the Kingdom, who provide logistical and other assistance to ensure that this summit succeeds.
We also wish to thank the representatives of all the countries here gathered for having taken the time in already heavily crowded calendars to meet together, exchange views, develop more refined understandings, and build good public policy for regional security.
I take pleasure in welcoming the chairman of the Institute, Francois Heisbourg to add his words of welcome and introduce our opening speaker. Thank you very much.
Introduction to His Excellency Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa
Francois Heisbourg
Chairman of the IISS Council
Your Royal Highnesses, your Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, as Chairman of the IISS, I now have the pleasant duty and the great honour of introducing our opening speaker, His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Before calling on him, I would like to add a few words of welcome to those already made by John Chipman, whose untiring work has made this meeting possible. I would add that his untiring energy will be further taxed during the 50th Anniversary celebrations and meetings that we will be holding next year.
First of all, I would want to thank, once again, the Kingdom of Bahrain for its great support in making this summit possible. Excellent planning, superb hospitality, and treasures of diplomacy have been key ingredients of the Kingdom’s unstinting support.
Secondly, I would want to express my appreciation for your presence here, especially as I know how busy you all are. However, I also say this because it is your presence that will ensure that this summit works; that it will contribute to reinforcing regional security and stability in the face of numerous challenges, crises and opportunities. I recognise here many friends and partners from the region and from the outside. I know that, together, in the framework provided by the IISS, we will be successful.
I now have the pleasure of turning towards our speaker this evening, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Your Excellency, one usually begins such introductions by saying that the speaker has had a long and distinguished career. Well, sir, your career is indeed most distinguished. You have been the Ambassador to the Court of St James, to the Netherlands, to Ireland, to Sweden; you previously occupied important positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and at the beginning, after joining the MFA in 1985, you served as a young diplomat in Washington DC for nine years, covering political, congressional and media affairs. In other words, you know as much about that part of the world that lies inside the beltway as you do about the parts which happen to extend beyond it. A distinguished career it is, but should I call it young? You are only 47 years old and therefore still a young man. That remark probably says more about my age than it should!
Sir, we look forward to hearing your remarks, borne from a remarkable combination of youth and experience. The experience of a young generation of leaders in this region.
