Kouchner to attend Manama conference

Manama: Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, has confirmed that he will lead the French delegation to the Manama Dialogue this Friday.

Talking to journalists at a Press conference in Brussels, the minister said that he was keen on being in Manama for the conference and on holding discussions with Arab officials on several important issues.

It will be the first time that Kouchner attends the annual security conference co-organised by Bahrain's foreign ministry and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

France has been pushing for playing a greater role in the region and has worked on improving cooperation with the Gulf states in various areas, mainly in the military field.

In his statement, the French minister said that he hoped that more Arab states would take part in the Nato operations in Afghanistan to help bring stability, social peace and development in the war-torn Muslim country.

Only the UAE and Jordan from the Arab world have so far committed troops alongside 42 countries within the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF).

Afghan's foreign minister Dr Rangin Dadfar, whose government is under intense pressure to deploy greater efforts to fight corruption and drug trafficking will also be present at the three-day security conference, alongside US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, and Pakistan's foreign affairs minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Delegates are expected to discuss security situations in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan