Agence France-Presse
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for boosting security cooperation with the Arabian Gulf states as the Western military alliance opened its first office in the region in January 2017.
“It will be a vital hub for cooperation between the alliance and our Gulf partners,” Stoltenberg said at the inauguration of the center in Kuwait in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.
The center in Kuwait City is based on the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), which was launched by NATO leaders in 2004 and aims to boost security links with the Middle East, in particular Arabian Gulf states.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are members of ICI, while Saudi Arabia and Oman have expressed a desire to join. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said the region is facing serious challenges that require cooperation with international organizations.
“We face common security threats like terrorism, weapons proliferation and cyber attacks. And we share the same aspirations for peace and for stability,” Stoltenberg said. “It is essential that we work more closely together than ever before. We have now developed individual cooperation programs with all our Gulf partners.”
In 2016, NATO trained hundreds of Iraqi officers in Jordan to better fight Daesh, Stoltenberg said.
“We are now extending our training and capacity-building efforts into Iraq itself,” he said.
NATO continues to fight terrorism in other ways, including with direct support to the anti-Daesh coalition, he said.
The center will strengthen military-to-military cooperation and the fight against terrorism and extremism, Stoltenberg said. It will also help the Gulf states by providing advanced training courses on cyber security, energy security and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.