Derasat hosts think tank NATO-GCC strategic partnership discussions
Date: May 11, 2023
A seminar organized by the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), titled ‘A Dialog between Arabian Gulf Think Tanks and their Partners with NATO’, concluded its proceedings on Thursday 11 May 2023 at the Gulf Hotel, with a notable participation from representatives of GCC and international centers for studies and research, coinciding with the Kingdom of Bahrain’s hosting of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Policy Advisory Group Meeting.
In the seminar’s opening speech, Derasat Executive Director Dr. Hamad Ebrahim Al-Abdulla said, “The Kingdom of Bahrain’s partnership with the NATO alliance has achieved important outcomes through the individual partnership and cooperation program in political and diplomatic areas of cooperation; exchanging defence and security expertise; countering terrorism; safeguarding regional security, besides exchanging information, developing capabilities, discussing naval security threats, and early planning for crisis-prevention.”
Dr. Al-Abdulla also clarified that, “All nations today face security challenges that demand constant cooperation and strategic partnerships to offset, using practical policies that fulfill the aspired benefits to achieve security in the Arabian Gulf and the wider Middle East.”
On his part, His Excellency Mr. Javier Colomina, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, welcomed Derasat Center’s organization of this vital dialog that, “Aims to discuss future NATO-GCC cooperation methods, given the common multiple security threats both sides face, which require more discussions and exchanging perspectives to lay both sides’ priorities and the role expected from NATO and Arabian Gulf countries.”
His Excellency also added that, “The dialog’s importance is in NATO’s desire to listen to think tank academic and research perspectives regarding the contents, pathways, and outcomes of the partnership, given think tanks’ pivotal role in monitoring, analyzing, and anticipating regional and global security issues, striving to extract indicators to better inform decision makers.
The dialog aimed to enrich NATO and GCC perspectives and conceptions to identify common security threats and priorities, and how transformations in the system of international relations reflected on regional security and facing threats, besides examining NATO’s current vision for the Arabian Gulf’s status quo, and the future of the NATO-GCC partnership.
Speakers included Dr. Mohammed Abdulla Al-Ali, Founder and CEO of Trends Research & Advisory in the UAE; Alessandro Politi, Director of the NATO Defense College Foundation in Rome; Dr. Haila Hamad Al-Mukaimi, Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University; and Dr. Ashraf Mohammed Keshk, Director of the Strategic and International Studies Program at Derasat Center’s Directorate of Studies and Research.
This dialog is part of Derasat Center’s quest to provide platforms to exchange ideas on international and regional challenges; namely ones related to the interests of Arabian Gulf countries and their relations with major countries and international organizations.