Shaikh Abdullah to lead UAE delegation at Manama Dialogue

Manama: Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan will lead the UAE delegation to the Manama Dialogue, an annual security conference that will open on Friday, organisers have said.

Shaikh Abdullah's participation will confirm a remarkably outstanding year for the UAE foreign diplomacy in reaching out to the highest number of friendly countries, broadening relations and cooperation in various domains and consolidating the status of the UAE on the global stage.

Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen last week publicly and also to Shaikh Abdullah who was on a working visit to Brussels paid rich tribute to the UAE role in helping with the peace-keeping and reconstruction efforts in the Balkans and in Afghanistan and in hosting a conference in Abu Dhabi in October during which the UAE and Nato signed a security agreement on intelligence information sharing.

Bahrain, Kuwait, France, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan will also send their foreign ministers to the gathering that will bring together delegations from more than two dozen countries for a review of critical regional issues that have a direct impact on government policy in the Arabian Gulf and beyond.

Kuwait's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, will deliver the keynote address at the Dialogue, co-organised by Bahrain's foreign ministry and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on December 11-13 in the Bahraini capital.

Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, likely to be one of the most sought-after participants by the local media following his remarks condemning the controversial referendum to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland.

Kouchner said that he was scandalized by the ban, calling it an oppression of religion freedom.

"I hope that the Swiss will go back on this decision rather quickly," Kouchner said on France's RTL radio. "It is an expression of intolerance, and I detest intolerance." He reiterated his condemnation last week at the Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

Other high-profile delegates

• General Walter Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff, Department of National Defence, Canada
• Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary, Germany
• M K Narayanan, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, India
• Kazuya Shimba, Senior Vice Minister for Defence, Japan
• Mikhail Margelov, Chairman, Committee for Foreign Affairs, Federation Council and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on Sudan, Russia
• Lieutenant General Desmond Kuek Bak Chye, Chief of Defence Force, Singapore
• Vecdi Gönül, Minister of National Defence, Turkey
• Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Royal Navy, UK
• Admiral (Retd) Dennis C Blair, Director of National Intelligence, US
• General David Petraeus, Commander, Central Command (CENTCOM) and Ali Muhammad Al Anisi, Chairman, National Security Agency and Head, Presidential Office, Yemen.
• Syria will be once more represented by its ambassador to Bahrain, Sulaiman Surra.