MANAMA: More than 300 world leaders, military chiefs and experts will take part in a three-day regional security summit that starts later this week.
Those attending in person will be joined by hundreds tuned in virtually for the 17th edition of the Manama Dialogue 2021, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) that will be held from Friday until next Sunday.
The premier summit engages experts from across the Middle East, North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to lively debate about the Middle East’s most pressing security challenges and this year’s theme is ‘Multilateralism and the Middle East’.
This year the forum will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay.
“We look forward to receiving in one week (Saudi Foreign Minister) Prince Faisal (bin Farhan Al Saud) to the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, where we will have more than 300 in-person delegates and ministers from dozens of countries in attendance,” IISS director-general and chief executive Dr John Chipman said in his Twitter post yesterday.
The US and UK have traditionally led big delegations consisting of its top ministers who have attended the summit and raised key issues.
This year all speakers of the different plenary sessions will attend in person.
The event kicks off with a televised debate on Friday and an opening reception, followed by an opening plenary session the following day entitled ‘US Defence Policy in the Middle East’.
Other sessions cover topics such as Diplomacy and Deterrence; The Gulf and Asia and Changing Multilateralism and Regional Security.
Plenary sessions on the last day will focus on Conflict Termination in the Wider Region, Security Dynamics in the Red Sea and Militias, Missiles and Nuclear Proliferation.
Meanwhile, the event will feature Middle East and North Africa’s brightest young strategic thinkers who will take part in the Young Leaders Programme. It enables them to be aware and participate in the thinking behind and design of effective regional policies.
The participants will be from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Middle East’s premier security and defence summit has been held in Manama in collaboration with IISS since 2004.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a keynote speech at the event last year.
Other big names to have appeared as speakers at the summit previously include King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in his capacity as Foreign Secretary, in 2016.
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