Noting that the first Gulf Dialogue had been held a year earlier in Bahrain, Dr Chipman paid tribute to the Kingdom of Bahrain ‘for their enthusiastic support for this innovation in regional security diplomacy’. He paid particular tribute to the personal commitment of His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa to the Dialogue’s success.
The IISS had been motivated to initiate the Dialogue by the success in Asia of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, which for the past four years had brought together in Singapore defence ministers, chiefs of staff, intelligence leaders and other security officials from the Asia-Pacific region and key outside powers. ‘The Shangri-La Dialogue has now become an informal institution and is recognised as the principal vehicle in the Asia-Pacific region for high-level defence diplomacy’, Dr Chipman said.
The 2004 Gulf Dialogue had been an experiment. The presence in 2005 of more ministers, more officials, from more countries was proof that the experiment had succeeded, Dr Chipman said. ‘Our hope is that this Dialogue will become institutionalised as the key event for regional security diplomacy.’
The 19 states gathered in Bahrain were taking part in a meeting designed as four events rolled into one, Dr Chipman continued. Firstly, the plenary sessions offered a platform for ministers and national security advisers to clarify and expand on government policy, and to be challenged by an expert group on policies and assumptions, in this way informing and refining the quality of wider public debate on regional security. Secondly, the break-out groups, also involving senior officials, provided a private opportunity for professional discussions to analyse more deeply pertinent strategic issues and to advance policy aims. Thirdly, bilateral meetings between national security advisers and ministers allowed delegation leaders privately to advance immediate policy goals. Fourthly, the multilateral lunches and dinners helped to cultivate the sense of a defence and security community where shared interests could be protected and advanced.
The need for the Gulf Dialogue was emphasised by Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He said: ‘In the past we have not had a forum that brings together interested parties to address both individual issues and strategic challenges in a detailed yet frank manner. I believe the Gulf Dialogue can be such a forum.’ The first Dialogue in 2004 had shown the need for a genuine and open dialogue between and among diplomatic, security and intelligence professionals with an interest in regional security. The challenges facing the region – and the world – could not be solved by any one country: cooperation at a number of levels was essential.
Among these challenges, Sheikh Khalid said, ‘terrorism and counter-terrorism continue to be at the forefront of our minds. The threat that we face from terrorism, both in the region and beyond, continues to evolve, and the past year has underlined once again that terrorism has absolutely no regard for national borders, nor for the nationality, faith or background of its victims.’
Responses, he said, must recognise the overlap and interconnection between domestic, regional and global terrorism. ‘We must be relentless in our pursuit of the terrorists and those who finance, harbour and assist them. At the same time, we have to continue the expansion of contacts and cooperation between our law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies.’ It was equally important to recognise the political dimension to terrorism, and to work politically to ensure that terrorists and their agenda remained isolated in the wider community.
The stabilisation and reconstruction of Iraq remained urgent priorities. ‘None of us can afford Iraq to fail. We must work together to mitigate the continuing human misery and suffering of the people of Iraq and prevent terrorists and their supporters from exploiting this situation as a pretext for their attacks both in the Middle East and beyond.’ Looking ahead, Sheikh Khalid said, ‘nobody should believe that the problems of a fragmented, unstable or violent Iraq would be contained within its borders. In other words, Iraq’s security is our security.’
The countries of the region and of the wider international community must support the Iraqi people in building a free, sovereign, stable and unified country. ’We must do all we can to support efforts to bring together Iraqis to resolve their differences through national dialogue and consensus rather than extremism and violence. Countries of the region, in particular, should continue to use their moral and ethical responsibility to move all parties toward dialogue, reconciliation and peace.’
Sheikh Khalid commended the efforts of the Arab League to bring together the various Iraqi groupings to try to establish common ground. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League, had visited Baghdad, while the League had sponsored a meeting in Cairo and was planning another. Sheikh Khalid said a new consensus on dialogue, cooperation and trust between all groups could ’herald the dawn of a new era for Iraq and its people’.
Sheikh Khalid continued by saying that one of the most important benefits of the Gulf Dialogue was that it facilitated discussions on collective GCC security arrangements, and in particular the role of non-GCC countries in such arrangements. ‘These structures continue to develop, in both military and civilian fields, as shown by, for example, the recent meeting of GCC Interior Ministers held in Bahrain. The GCC states know that robust collective security arrangements are vital to their future development and we recognise the benefits of working together and with extra-regional countries to consolidate these arrangements and develop our individual and collective capabilities.’
The United States would continue to play a key role in GCC and regional security. But other countries and international organisations, recognising the strategic importance of the region, would continue to make important contributions. For example, GCC states had continued their cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in areas such as maritime security, training and capacity building. Sheikh Khalid welcomed delegations from China and India who were attending for the first time. He said a strong, cooperative and complementary web of international links would be the best long-term guarantee of regional security and stability, and gatherings such as the Gulf Dialogue would help to establish and strengthen such links.
Iraq was inevitably a recurrent theme of the Dialogue, which took place as that country prepared for parliamentary elections on 15 December 2005, against a background of violence and insecurity in some locations.
Sheikh Ghazi Al Yawer, one of Iraq’s two Vice Presidents, said in a Keynote Address to the opening dinner that he hoped the elections would create a balanced parliament that would allow the political process to develop further. Iraq faced abnormal and difficult conditions, including terrorism, the influence of regional states, the heritage of injustice under the former regime and emigration of skilled people. Foreign forces, he said,
, one of Iraq’s two Vice Presidents, said in a Keynote Address to the opening dinner that he hoped the elections would create a balanced parliament that would allow the political process to develop further. Iraq faced abnormal and difficult conditions, including terrorism, the influence of regional states, the heritage of injustice under the former regime and emigration of skilled people. Foreign forces, he said, would continue to be needed (subject to the signature of a status-of-forces agreement), while Iraq’s militias must be disbanded and integrated into the security forces.
The region, he said, was important for the whole world because of its oil reserves and its position as a significant link between East and West. The world, he said, had become ‘like a small village thanks to the revolution of communications and media’. Iraq had found itself at the centre of a ‘media storm’ as events were broadcast live to the whole world and to the people of Iraq. On many occasions, he said, the media had ‘dealt with these events in a way that jeopardised the unity and solidarity of Iraqi society’.
Iraq, facing unstable and difficult conditions, was working hard to activate a political process that would be open to all Iraqis. It was seeking first of all to rid itself of terrorism, which Sheikh Ghazi described as the ‘enemy of humanity’, and of the influence of ‘regional states’. The country was encumbered with the ’heavy heritage which we have inherited from [the] former regime’, as well as the outcome of the ’occupation period and mistakes committed’. While the previous regime had behaved unjustly towards certain segments and ethnic groups, ‘now there is injustice to all segments and groups’. The middle class, which was the basis of society, was vanishing as doctors, engineers and other technocrats emigrated.
Sheikh Ghazi said the multinational forces deployed to Iraq were still needed, ’provided that we reach an agreement to regulate their work, in order to avoid any negative effects on the performance of our government and sentiments of our people’. Iraq’s armed forces and security bodies should be built in a sound professional manner, and this would ‘enable us to avoid dependency on multinational forces’.
The Iraqi Vice President said: ’Frankly speaking, what happened during the past two years was just the building of influence of certain characters and political entities, but not the building of a state.’ Tight deadlines and short transitional periods, such as the three months allotted to writing the constitution, meant that there had not been enough time for politics to mature and for entities to emerge that were ‘based on national concepts according to political principles, visions and initiatives’. Sheikh Ghazi added: ’We hope that the next elections on December 15 will create a balanced parliament and that the four-year period will be enough to activate the momentum of the political process.’
