Promoting Cooperation and Fostering Relations:
NATO-Gulf Relations in the Framework
of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative

Joint Conference sponsored by the

Gulf Research Center (GRC)

and

NATO Division of Public Diplomacy

Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

September 26, 2005

Introduction:

The Gulf Research Center together with the NATO Division of Public Diplomacy will be hosting a one-day specialized conference on Promoting Cooperation and Fostering Relations: NATO-Gulf relations in the Framework of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. The event will take place on September 26, 2005, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

With its decision to adopt the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative in June 2004, NATO underscored its intention to work with interested countries in the Middle East, starting with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, to foster mutually beneficial bilateral relationships and thus enhance security and stability. The purpose of this meeting to explore the practical possibilities of such cooperation and to see how the relationship between NATO and the member states of the GCC can be enhanced and promoted.

In addition to the expert presentations by leading specialists from NATO and the GCC States, the event will be attended by a number of high-level diplomats from both the GCC and the NATO side. This will make it possible to provide an in-depth look at the issue of a possible NATO role in Gulf security matters. 

WELCOME REMARKS

Abdulaziz O. Sager
Chairman
Gulf Research Center

Allow me at the outset to extend a warm welcome to all the participants and attendees who have joined us today for this very timely and important meeting of the Gulf Research Center (GRC) and the NATO Division of Public Diplomacy on a discussion on NATO-GCC Relations in the Framework of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). I am particularly pleased to have with us the Assistant Secretary-General for Public Diplomacy Mr. Jean Fournet, Dr. Alberto Bin and Mr. Nicola De Santis from the NATO Headquarters in Brussels who have agreed to sponsor this event with the GRC and who over the past year have expressed an intense interest to have a forum in the region under which NATO policy and especially its programs vis-à-vis the GCC states can be discussed and elaborated upon. I must really thank them for all the support and assistance they have provided us with and I want to extend a special welcome to them here in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

Over the past year, the GRC has undertaken a number of initiatives to build upon its relationship with NATO. In fact almost precisely to the date a year ago, we were very fortunate to be able to host Deputy Secretary-General Ambassador Alessandro Minuto Rizzo at the Gulf Research Center in September 2004 for a roundtable discussion that coincided with the Secretary’s initial talks with regional governments about the ICI and NATO’s offer of a broadened relationship. And just three weeks ago, the GRC under its Executive Leadership Program on European institutions took a group of twenty-five leading Gulf professionals and policy practitioners to NATO Headquarters for a visit and briefing by Ambassador Rizzo, Mr. Nicola De Santis and the American Ambassador Victoria Nuland. Again, we thank them for their cooperation. We found the visit to the hallowed halls of NATO to be extremely useful and informative.

Since first announcing its Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and stating its willingness to broaden its outreach to the Middle East region and specifically the Gulf, NATO has proceeded at a relatively rapid rate and has been able to conclude agreements with four of the six GCC States – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates under the ICI umbrella. Discussions are continuing with Oman and Saudi Arabia and are likely to be brought to a positive conclusion shortly. This is a development to be welcomed as an expanded NATO role in the Gulf is likely to contribute to greater security and stability in the region.

At the same time, there is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty about the objectives and interests of NATO. Particularly as far as the public is concerned, there is little concrete understanding about what the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative is really about or what the purpose behind this new approach is. To overcome this information deficit and to be able to elaborate more fully about NATO’s intentions, we agreed to hold this joint conference so that people in the Gulf region will become more aware about this important initiative and so that NATO itself can enlighten us all about its intended and envisioned role in the near future.

Overcoming existing perceptions will be critical if NATO is to succeed in making the ICI a key component of a more inclusive regional security dialogue. In that context, it is important that one begins to better understand the composition of NATO as an organization, to comprehend the relationship between NATO and the United States as well as the rest of the member states and to get a better sense of the different components that make up the ICI. Here, it is not sufficient just to mention that the NATO initiative is one in which each member state can determine its own scope and rate of participation. Rather, it is the region itself that has to be informed about what role issues such as improving border security, the fight against international terrorism, the movement towards greater interoperability as part of military-to-military cooperation, or working against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction play within the thinking of NATO and how such cooperation is actually being enacted. Overall, the true nature and extent of the relationship between NATO and the GCC member states as well as the ICI initiative itself needs to be well and better defined.

In addition, there is a need to clear up existing misperceptions that also the GCC states as a whole must begin to understand. Although NATO was primarily established as a military organization that formed itself within the context of the Cold War period, the alliance has grown beyond its initial mandate to include a political component that is of equal if not greater importance. This is partly due to the fact that NATO is a multilateral organization that operates on the basis of consensus and where decision-making is done at the collective level. Over the past decade, NATO has already undergone a substantial transformation concerning its mission and objectives and it is today no longer the same organization that stood across from the Warsaw Pact countries only twenty years ago.

Given that history and the way that NATO has begun to structure itself today, there is a lot that the GCC States can learn from such an experience. Furthermore, it becomes both possible and necessary to relate that experience to how the two sides can begin to work together to promote mutual political interests and act against common security concerns. NATO’s knowledge and practice in constructing a multilateral alliance network, in burden-sharing as well as in promoting individual country specialization ultimately leading to a more effective coalition, is unprecedented and of direct utility for the GCC States.

From its action in both the Balkans and the current function that NATO is performing in Afghanistan, it is clear that NATO has a significant role to play in the shifting global security environment and one that is very much appreciated. Given the volatile security situation that currently exists in the Gulf, NATO can play a role in assisting the region to develop more comprehensive and lasting structures that can deal with the dangers with which the region might be confronted. This again is an area where initiatives such as the ICI can play an important function and one hopefully over which participants and delegates will engage in a substantive discussion over the course of the day. 

It is in the tradition of events at the Gulf Research Center that we encourage everyone here to be as frank and open as possible and to take advantages of such a gathering to take a serious look at the issues that confront us. While we are only at the beginning in terms of focusing on what a future role for NATO in the region could look like, this is indeed a critical subject where the early interjection and involvement of as many people as possible will allow us to formulate what we hope are concrete and applicable policy prescriptions. This is something that I encourage everyone here to do.

Once again I thank you all for coming and I look forward to the discussions to follow.