A+ A-

NATO sees increased coop. with Arab Gulf countries last year

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
BRUSSELS, March 13 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presented here Monday his annual report for the year 2016 which highlights how NATO is adapting to the new security environment by strengthening its collective defence and projecting stability beyond its borders.
"At no time since the end of the Cold War NATO has faced greater challenges to our security than it has today," he said presenting the 121-page report at a press conference.
The report shows how much NATO is doing to adapt to this new security environment, acting with determination, to strengthen our collective defence and to project stability beyond our borders, and contributing to the fight against terrorism.
He noted that the 28-member Alliance has also started training Iraqi forces and also sent mobile training teams to Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
NATO AWACS planes are supporting the Global Coalition to Counter-ISIL, he noted.
"To bolster our efforts in the Middle East and North Africa we have recently decided to establish a Hub for the South in our command in Naples. We have opened the NATO-ICI regional centre in Kuwait, to improve cooperation with our partners in the Gulf," said Stoltenberg.
The annual report noted that NATO continued to work last year with countries in the Gulf region through the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), improving dialogue and increasing practical cooperation.
Activities in 2016 were conducted in areas including education and training, energy security, cyber defence, non-proliferation and arms control, maritime security, civil emergency planning, and the exercise planning process.
Seven mobile training courses were conducted in ICI countries in fields such as civil-military cooperation, military aspects of civil emergency planning and exercise planning.
In January 2017, a new NATO ICI Regional Centre was opened in Kuwait to facilitate enhanced practical cooperation between NATO and the countries in the region.
The Centre will foster cooperation in the fields of strategic and policy analysis, military to-military cooperation, civil emergency planning and consequence management, public diplomacy and cultural awareness.
It will also provide further opportunities for dialogue with ICI countries, as well as with Oman, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, said the report.
It said that NATO engages with partner countries and other international actors to promote a common understanding of the terrorism threat and to support partners' capacity to fight terrorism more effectively.
In 2016, the annual Counter-Terrorism Information Day held at NATO Headquarters in November involved more than 30 partners with a declared interest in cooperation with NATO on this issue, it added. (end) nk.mt