Bahrain, NATO members discuss IPCP relations

Brussels : The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa expressed Bahrain’s commitment to expanding and deepening its relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in the framework of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, which the Kingdom joined in 2004.

He commended the significant role played by NATO in keeping the international peace and security, as well as underlined the cooperation between the Kingdom and NATO in the fight against terrorism, piracy and disaster management. 

Dr Shaikh Abdullah was speaking in a meeting with NATO member-States and the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Belgian capital Brussels yesterday. NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy James Appathurai headed the NATO delegation. 

The meeting discussed the individual partnership and cooperation programme (IPCP) between the Kingdom of Bahrain and NATO. The Bahraini delegation, headed by Dr Shaikh Abdullah, also reviewed the programmes introduced by the committee of cooperation and partnership of IPCP with NATO for 2016 -2018. 

The Undersecretary presented the IPCP between the Kingdom of Bahrain and NATO, which aims at promoting the partnership between the two sides in a number of political, security and military domains. He pointed out that the IPCP will focus on three key areas, including the political and diplomatic cooperation, exchange of experiences in the areas of defence and security, and cooperation to address arising civil and security threats. 

He stressed that Bahrain accession to the IPCP will enhance dialogue and set the effective and efficient mechanisms of mutual cooperation. 

NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was launched at the Alliance’s Summit in the Turkish city on 28 -29 June 2004 to affirm the strategic partnership between a number of GCC States and NATO for cooperation to countermeasure the 21st century security threats. 

It aims to contribute to strengthening bilateral security cooperation between NATO and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative member-States.