MANAMA, 24 February 2004 — A causeway linking Bahrain and Qatar and an agreement on supplying Bahrain with Qatari natural gas were the highlights of a two-day visit by Qatari Crown Prince Sheikh Jassim ibn Hamad Al-Thani to Bahrain.
Sheikh Jassim arrived in Manama on Sunday as head of the Qatari delegation at the Bahrain-Qatar joint commission meeting. The Bahraini side at the talks was led by Crown Prince Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa.
According to a joint communiqué issued at the end of the talks, Qatar and Bahrain agreed “on swiftly finalizing the necessary studies to build a causeway linking the two countries, and the possibility of signing an agreement with Qatar to provide Bahrain with natural gas.”
Preliminary estimates have put the cost of the road link at up to $2 billion. Studies would also be undertaken of the “commercial feasibility of an electrical power project to connect both countries and the possibility of employing Bahraini citizens who wish to work in Qatar,” which sits on the world’s third largest reserves of natural gas.
Both sides agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of power, industry, electricity, water, employment, social affairs, economy, commerce, youth, sports, media, women and family affairs and civil aviation, the statement said.
BNA news agency also reported that King Hamad called Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad yesterday. The visit by Qatar’s crown prince would “open new horizons of joint cooperation to launch joint ventures for the benefit of the peoples of both countries,” the king told the emir.
The joint commission was formed after a decades-old territorial dispute between Bahrain and Qatar, which led to a war in 1986, was resolved by the International Court of Justice in March 2001.
However, relations between Manama and Doha have been chilly since the body last met in 2002. One of the problems is believed to be Qatar’s frequent arrests of Bahraini fishermen accused of straying into its territorial waters.
