Abu Dhabi: The Gulf region is of great strategic importance not only as a major source of economy and energy in the world, but also to geopolitical and security considerations which requires common regional and international cooperation because we are facing complex threats and challenges that cannot be settled without with a comprehensive and continuous international cooperation, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, said on Thursday.
''The world has changed due to rapid and deeply revolutions and technical advances creating changes at the levels of information and communication, international relations, as well as the conventional military confrontations that cause the emergence of a new era of irregular warfare and electronic warfare, Shaikh Abdullah said in a keynote address before the International Conference on "Nato-UAE Relations and the Way Forward in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI).
He added that "It is important to take advantage of the international atmosphere of openness to create a broader base for dialogue and to find solutions to the problems facing the world."
''As a result of these global changes, UAE's policy, led by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, believes that it is necessary to find a more comprehensive concept of security in the region, considering that the threats to the Gulf region requires attention not only at the regional level but also at the international level," he told the meeting which was attended by Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of Nato, Abdulrahman Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States, and high-ranking officials from 28 countries affiliated to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
"Since its accession to the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, the UAE has worked hard to promoting common security issues as the appropriate framework for consultation, exchange of views and cooperation in the fields of defense arrangements, the enhancement of regional and international efforts to combat terrorism, the participation in peacekeeping operations, and achievement of stability and reconstruction in conflict-ridden regions in the world, " he added.
''I can say with pride and humble that our flags fluttered high as a messenger of peace, reconciliation, building and reconstruction in Lebanon, Somalia, Balkan, Iraq, Afghanistan and others,''he said.
The UAE, he affirmed, would maintain its close cooperation with its partners in the ICI in pursuit of security, stability and development in the region and the world at large.
''At the same time, we are looking forward for enriching the ICI with new approaches for handling emerging challenges and common threats in a way that can promote and preserve comprehensive concept of peace and security,'' he concluded.
