Bahrain to host Manama Dialogue on December 5-7

MANAMA- Bahrain will host the 10th Manama Dialogue on December 5-7, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

The Manama Dialogue process is an established component of the regional security architecture advancing Gulf policy.

IISS convened its annual Manama Dialogue Preparatory Sherpa Meeting on Monday. Each year, the IISS Sherpa Meeting launches the Manama Dialogue process which culminates in December with the IISS Regional Security Summit: The Manama Dialogue in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Last week, US and GCC defence ministers conducted a landmark meeting, the first in six years, which had been proposed by US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the 2013 Manama Dialogue. In Jeddah Secretary Hagel said: “As I said at the Manama Dialogue last December, America’s engagement with Gulf nations is intended to support and facilitate, not replace, stronger multilateral ties within the GCC.”

This year’s IISS Preparatory Sherpa Meeting launched the 2014 Manama Dialogue Research Agenda, which will serve as a framework for the Manama Dialogue and research activities of the IISS-Middle East headquarters generating key analysis for regional leaders in defence and diplomacy. The 2014 Manama Dialogue Research Agenda central themes are: The Spillover from Syria, The Role of Outside Powers in the Gulf and Iran’s Nuclear Negotiations and Afterwards.

“In convening these meetings we hope to build an informal dialogue as well as even an enduring network between senior governmental officials where discussions can be detailed and focused but also relaxed and unhindered by the need to reach agreement or finalise a communiqué,” Mark Allworthy, Managing Director, IISS-Middle East, said. “This dialogue both feeds and is fed by our own substantive research and completes a virtuous circle.”

IISS senior staff and selected government officials from states, expected to play a pivotal role in this year’s Manama Dialogue, assessed each one of these themes at the IISS Preparatory Sherpa Meeting.

The Middle East office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) opened in May 2010 in Manama, Bahrain.

IISS-Middle East serves as a base for the Institute’s many research programmes and activities throughout the region. Headquartered in London, the IISS also has long-standing regional offices in Washington and Singapore.-BNA