Manama: The Manama Dialogue, an international security conference held annually in Bahrain, opens on Friday with a focus on the issues of security and ways of countering extremism in the Middle East.
Several defence and foreign affairs ministers are expected to use the three-day event to review the latest developments in the region dominated by the emergence of Daesh and other radical terrorist groups.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), co-organisers of the event, said senior officials participating in the conference included Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Abdul Lateef Al Zayani, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, and Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s minister of defence.
Ibrahim Al Jaafari, Iraq’s minister of foreign affairs, Nizar bin Obaid Madani, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Philip Hammond, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Michael Fallon, the British Secretary of State for Defence and General Ali Al Ahmadi, Yemen’s National Security Bureau chief will also attend.
The 10th IISS Manama Dialogue features televised plenary ‘Beyond Conflict: Imagining the Future of the Middle East’ that brings together Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s Minister of Finance, and Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a research scholar at Princeton University and former Head of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Supreme National Security Council in Iran.
Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa hosts the opening dinner.
Simultaneous special sessions on Saturday and Sunday will see delegates discussing the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of global powers, humanitarian and geopolitical approaches to prevent state failure and regional military cooperation.
Collective approaches to current security issues will be reviewed at the fifth plenary session of the Manama Dialogue.
The inter-governmental summit seen as “a crucial pillar of the regional security architecture,” provides a platform for national security leaders from the Gulf, wider Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia to consult on key security and foreign policy challenges facing the region.
The IISS says that the Manama Dialogue is an inter-governmental summit held to foster regional security diplomacy in the Gulf.
“It provides a space for national security leaders and analysts from the Gulf, the wider Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia to debate and consult bilaterally and multilaterally on key security and foreign policy challenges. Now in its tenth year, the IISS Manama Dialogue has become a key pillar in the evolving Gulf security architecture.”
