"The event will also be addressed by a number of local and foreign dignitaries over the next two days," said Abdulkarim Al-Dekhayel, director general of the Institute of Diplomatic Studies (IDS). The conference, he said, would "seek to explore the various challenges that exist and identify the strategies that need to be employed by the GCC states to promote their interests and contribute to more concerted efforts" for regional stability and security.
"The first session will focus on the changing landscape in terms of political, economic and strategic interests, which could affect the overall situation in the Gulf," said Al-Dekhayel. Al-Nahyan and Al-Zayani will deliver their speeches following the opening of the event by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, minister of foreign affairs.
The two-day event is jointly organized by the IDS, an organization working under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the UAE-based Gulf Research Center (GRC).
The conference, Al-Dekhayel said, would focus for the first time on the strategic interests of the Gulf, which are going through a paradigm shift.
Spelling out the major features of this political forum, Al-Dekhayel said the first session on the role of the GCC states in a changing international landscape will be addressed by Al-Nahyan, Al-Zayani and Mohammed Ibraheem Alhulwah, a Shoura Council member.
The second session on regional security dynamics will be addressed by other speakers including Prince Muqrin, chief of the General Intelligence.
The rising importance of Gulf states in economic terms, especially for the world economy in the wake of the global financial crisis, serves as a powerful magnet drawing the attention of various powers to the issues defining Gulf security. In this context, the Arabian Peninsula’s location as a halfway point between Europe, Asia and Africa not only represents the crossroads for world commerce, it also has wide-ranging geopolitical and geostrategic consequences as well.
Al-Dekhayel said that the forum would hold dialogue on all issues and not merely focus on security or political issues.
"A panel of experts will discuss potential areas of interest beyond politics and security, such as trade, investment, technology and related matters," added the IDS chief. The participants will also review the implications of Iran, which is bent upon flexing its nuclear muscles, directly impacting regional security. Also on the agenda will be the continued instability in Iraq.
In fact, the wider Gulf region is "a critical component" in concerns about global stability and security, said a statement released by the GRC, a major regional think tank chaired and founded by Dr. Abdulaziz Sager. "No area of the world has captivated the daily headlines in the past decade as much as the region that encompasses the GCC member states, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and beyond that the adjoining areas of Central and South Asia, primarily Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Greater Middle East with its perennial Arab-Israeli conflict," said the statement.
The statement said Iraq continues to struggle in its attempts to bring about a more stable domestic political environment, while the continuing dispute over the Iranian nuclear program holds within it the potential for another conflict. In addition, the circle of instability that surrounds the Gulf stretching from Palestine to Afghanistan, Pakistan Yemen, Somalia and Egypt will undoubtedly have regional and international repercussions.
"To properly comprehend Gulf dynamics, the area of focus needs to include immediate regional actors like Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Somalia, and the broader international community including the United States, Europe, Russia and increasingly growing Asian countries such as China and Japan," said the statement. Within this environment, GCC states have attempted in recent years to carve out a role for themselves with the objective to promote a policy of dialogue and cooperation, it noted.
"With its preeminent position in world energy markets and buoyed by large budget surpluses that have since 2003 in particular led to the GCC’s tremendous overall development, the Gulf states have shifted gears and sought to interact with all parts of the globe in unprecedented ways," said the statement. This can be seen as part of an effort to explore new relationships and find different mechanisms that could contribute to regional stability.
Referring to the Gulf forum in Riyadh, the statement said the event would provide "a platform for all those concerned with the region’s outlook to outline their policies and how they themselves can assist in moving the region out of its perennial cycle of conflict."
The forum will also discuss the global power shifts and the role of traditional powers. The event will also debate the need for a joint action plan to strengthen mutual cooperation in all areas, especially economy, trade, investment, education, scientific research, environment and health.A common area of convergence in these shifting alliances is the recognition on all sides that the Gulf region is an area of primary interest. The Gulf region’s share of global oil and natural gas production is projected to rise from 28 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2020. With most of that increase going to Asian markets, GCC states have continued to diversify their economic interests by looking to these countries.
In his study “The GCC States and the Shifting Balance of Global Power,” Gulf specialist Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes that GCC States led by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have gotten deeply involved in global issues, ranging from energy governance to the politics of climate change and reforms to the global financial architecture. This is in addition to issues of energy interdependence and concerns over maritime and food security.
However, according to GRC chief Sager, the US military role in the region “does remain an integral part of assuring the independence and sovereignty of GCC states in a dangerous and unpredictable neighborhood. On an economic front, making GCC economies sustainable is the thrust of the Gulf Forum-2011 before it concludes with a set of recommendations. The growth model will have to factor in its energy and manpower resources and how they can be mobilized in taking the region forward into the 21st century.
Interest in harnessing renewable energy is evident today in the GCC. Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi, who will also address the forum, said: “Hopefully over the next 30 to 50 years we will be major electricity exporters.”
Interest in the development of renewable energy is also evident in other GCC countries. A well-documented study by DLR has shown that the potential for concentrated solar power in the GCC countries is much higher than their energy demand.
A globalized economy marked by capital movement and technology transfer across the geographical frontiers has dictated the need for corresponding changes in terms of corporate governance, investment laws and the regulatory regime on the part of the GCC countries. As the region integrates into the global marketplace, corporate governance holds the key to improving a company’s competitiveness in terms of transparency and social accountability as well as ease of capital movement or technology transfer.
