NATO Thursday stressed that the Kuwait-based NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Regional Centre continues to play an active role in promoting practical cooperation between NATO and the Gulf countries.
“With an enhanced NATO presence at the Kuwait based NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Regional Centre, NATO continued to provide training opportunities to the Gulf countries and to organize public diplomacy events around key topics of mutual interest,” said the NATO annual 2021 report launched today by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a news conference.
Since its inauguration in 2017, the Centre has hosted over 1,600 participants from the Gulf and several hundred experts from NATO countries, it noted.
Istanbul Cooperation Initiative partners were instrumental in supporting the evacuation of Allied troops and Afghans from Kabul airport in the summer of 2021. Their logistical support proved invaluable to the Alliance, allowing for the completion of the largest air-based evacuation in history, said the 150-page report.
The NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Regional Centre in Kuwait delivered last year its first in-person counter-terrorism course for participants from partner countries in the Gulf, it said.
NATO has an extensive network of partners in the Middle East and North Africa, through the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.
In 2021, NATO and its regional partners continued to increase practical cooperation, with a focus on key areas such as counter-terrorism, strategic communications, small arms and light weapons, counter-improvised explosive device training, ammunition management, good governance, crisis management, civil preparedness, as well as women, peace and security, it said.
NATO and its regional partners worked together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including through the delivery of vital medical equipment to Jordan and Tunisia.
NATO has developed formal partnerships with 40 countries worldwide and several international organisations. The Alliance has also developed active cooperation with a range of countries that are not part of these regional partnership frameworks. Referred to as “partners across the globe”. They include Australia, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.
Eighteen partners currently have missions to NATO Headquarters in Brussels including Kuwait, noted the report.
In 2021, NATO kept most of its liaison offices open (in Belgrade, Chisinau, Kyiv, Sarajevo and Tbilisi, and in Kuwait, New York and Vienna), while adjusting to local COVID-19 precautionary measures and adopting alternative ways of working.
The report goes on to say that NATO Mission Iraq is the cornerstone of NATO’s engagement in the Middle East. It is a non-combat, advisory, training and capacity-building mission All 30 NATO Allies and three partner countries (Australia, Finland and Sweden) contribute to NATO Mission Iraq. In 2021, the mission expanded its strength by a few hundred more support staff and advisors, including civilians, military and support elements. This expansion to about 500 personnel helped the mission enhance its engagements with Iraqi defense and security officials.
NATO complements the broader international effort to help Iraq eradicate terrorism and promote stability, said the report.
On Afghanistan, the report noted that in April 2021, NATO announced the withdrawal of NATO-led Resolute Support Mission forces from Afghanistan. This decision initiated the end of NATO’s almost 20-year military engagement in Afghanistan.
The lessons NATO has learned from Afghanistan will shape the Alliance’s crisis management role in the future. NATO has suspended all areas of cooperation with Afghanistan, but it remains dedicated to Afghanistan, said the report.
The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) is a NATO initiative that was launched during the 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey with the aim to increase cooperation with Gulf countries.
Currently Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar are participants in the ICI initiative.
Source: Kuwait News Agency