Address by Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bahrain

 

 

Mr. Chairman,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Participants,

 

I am delighted to see so many high-level defence and national security decision makers from the region and beyond at this Manama Dialogue meeting, and I want to start by thanking Dr. Chipman and the IISS for once again organising this meeting and bringing together such a distinguished group of participants.

 

The immediate security concerns for the region are complex and fluid. Some have raged for decades, others are more recent, but all have a profound impact on the daily lives of our people. These concerns affecting the security of Gulf states, and therefore of the region itself, can be divided into two categories: internal and external.

 

Domestically, we face four complex and inter-linked challenges: demographics, extremism, sectarianism and terrorism.

 

The challenges posed by the region's rapidly-growing populations are well recognised, and must be met if long-term internal security is to be maintained. Failure to provide employment opportunities, infrastructure and social services to keep pace with growing populations will fuel discontent and division, and create an environment in which extremism and terrorism can take hold.

 

Our region faces unique challenges related to employment and labour markets, and in particular the need to ensure that large expatriate populations do not displace local workforces, while retaining the ability to attract necessary talents and expertise from around the world. Bahrain is addressing these challenges through a comprehensive reform of its labour market, in partnership with the private sector, to ensure that Bahrainis are given all necessary skills and opportunities to find employment, without losing the flexibility to fill short-term skill gaps through recruitment of expatriates.

 

As we undertake this development, we must ensure that it reaches and benefits all parts of our societies, without distinction as to gender, race, religion or sect. Sectarianism in particular is one of the worst threats we face today. It deafens and blinds individuals and societies to reason, hinders progress and, ultimately, can lead to the sort of senseless violence we see today in Iraq. The sectarian violence in Iraq, and the fuel it provides to hatred, extremism and terrorism in the region and beyond, must be halted as a matter of the utmost urgency.

 

Our job, both domestically and in our dealings with other countries, must be to avoid such divisions, and indeed to heal such rifts where they develop. To do so, and to combat exclusion and extremism, we must recognise that all policy areas can have a long-term security dimension.

 

I am thinking in particular of education and human development, and the need to reform our systems to provide the skills that are required in today's globalised world economy. We must also work to promote social cohesion and mobility for all levels of society, regardless of background.

 

Much remains to be done and I believe we must all accelerate the pace of our domestic reforms, because security begins from within.

 

The primary external concerns are the many actual and potential conflicts and areas of tension in the Gulf and Middle East, and I want briefly to outline my thoughts on just a few of these. Today, our region suffers three concurrent conflicts - more than any region can realistically be expected to handle.

 

Unquestionably, the situation in the Occupied Palestinian and Arab territories remains the fundamental impediment to achieving peace and security in the Middle East, of which the Gulf is an integral part, and equally clearly, a negotiated, just and durable settlement to the conflict, based on Security Council resolutions and the principle of land for peace, leading to two viable, contiguous and secure states is the only way forward.

 

In the Gulf, no sustainable long-term regional security arrangement can be envisioned without Iraq and Iran acting as two of its pillars.

 

An Iran that is an active and constructive part of the Gulf and international security framework, and which recognises the rights and interests of other regional states, will be a huge benefit to security and stability, and will open new possibilities for the region.

 

Iran has its own legitimate concerns for regional security, and its rights under international law, including the right to the peaceful civilian use of nuclear energy, but we must also recognise that there are issues that need to be resolved. Building a framework within which the concerns of all sides are satisfactorily addressed must be among our highest priorities.

 

As to Iraq, and as the recent Iraq Study Group Report recognises, the situation is undoubtedly serious, and is worsening. Violence is increasing, not decreasing, and there is talk of a long and bloody civil war, or of a division of the country along ethnic or sectarian lines. This situation is a clear danger to the entire region.

 

The problem has been aggravated by outside intervention, which sometimes unintentionally provokes guerrilla groups to rise up, and sometimes deliberately encourages them, as proxies to settle other accounts. Regional countries must therefore not meddle in Iraq - it is in the interest of no country in the region, or beyond, for Iraq to become a failed state or to splinter along ethnic or sectarian lines, or for the violence to spill over into the wider region.

 

I believe, however, that countries of the region are more than willing to help, and to play a constructive role in rebuilding Iraq.

 

The question is - how? At the moment, the security situation is such that it is almost impossible to see how countries of the region can play a part in reconstruction efforts without unacceptable risk. The overriding priority must be to improve the security situation. It must improve dramatically, and it must improve quickly, if we are to avoid a calamity.

 

If the world wants a stable and secure Middle East, it must solve Iraq, and in particular the issues of violence and sectarianism. Iraqis, too, have a duty to work together in good faith to settle their differences and to create an Iraqi identity based on one country, and one citizenship.

 

Mr. Chairman,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Participants,

 

The geopolitical and strategic significance of the region makes its security and stability, and the issues of maritime and energy security, matters of concern for the international community. The future stability and security of the region and beyond greatly depends on the constant and constructive involvement of the United States, the EU, and other concerned parties.

 

The short term necessity is to preserve regional security and stability, particularly in light of the current volatile situation. In the longer term, we must look forward, reform our way of thinking and banish any sectarian or ethnic mindsets. As long as people think, act and make decisions along ethnic or sectarian lines, the region will not go forward, and will continue to suffer tension and conflict. If we can rid the region of these mindsets, we will open up new possibilities for common security and economic development and progress for the entire region.

 

Thank you.