http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=341980&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
Gulf Times February 8, 2010 Nato official says Qatar relations ‘fruitful’ Nato’s deputy secretary general, Claudio Bisogniero, has termed the military pact’s relations with Qatar as “extremely fruitful”. Lauding the support extended by Qatar to Nato since the Istanbul Initiative in 2004, the senior official said the country had always been very supportive of the issues taken up by Nato since then. In a little over five years, Qatar has become an active participant in most deliberations held under the aegis of Nato, he said. Bisogniero also reminded the gathering that HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the first leader to visit the Nato headquarters after the Istanbul Initiative of the four GCC countries, the other three being Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain. Terming Qatar’s role as one on “positive direction”, Bisogniero said it could help yield results in establishing long-standing peace and security in the region. On the issues of energy security and nuclear proliferation, Qatar has always demonstrated its stand for practical co-operation on many occasions, he said. Stressing that Nato is keen to strengthen ties with an active participant [such] as Qatar in deliberations, the envoy expressed the hope that the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] state would take a lead in political dialogues having a bearing on this region. Welcoming the delegates earlier, Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations and Training Qatar Major General Ghanim bin Shaheen al-Ghanim said the discussions at the Doha meeting would help Nato chalk out plans to help the international community achieve global peace and stability in the region. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: rwroz...@yahoo.com or stopnato-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Daily digest option available. ==============================
