NATO’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Javier Colomina, has visited Qatar for talks on regional security and closer cooperation between the alliance and Doha, the alliance stated.
The visit took place on Thursday 23 July. Colomina met Dr Mariam bint Ali bin Nasser Al-Misnad, Secretary of State for International Cooperation, and Lieutenant General Jasim bin Mohammed Al-Mannai, Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces. According to NATO, he reaffirmed the alliance’s solidarity with its Gulf partners in light of what it terms ongoing indiscriminate Iranian attacks, and repeated NATO’s condemnation of them.
Talks covered the evolving regional security picture and ways of deepening the NATO relationship with Qatar. Colomina welcomed the recent endorsement of an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme and discussed implementation of the four Istanbul Cooperation Initiative flagship projects launched at the Ankara summit earlier in July.
Qatar has been struck repeatedly during the conflict between Iran and the United States. Iranian missiles and drones hit several Gulf states on 12 July, with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain all reporting attacks, hours after US Central Command said it had struck around 140 military targets across Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted Al Udeid air base, the largest US installation in the region, though neither Doha nor Washington commented on the claim. Further strikes followed later in the month, with Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan and Syria taking defensive action against Iranian missiles and drones.
Qatar’s foreign ministry has condemned the attacks in successive statements, describing them as violations of sovereignty and a dangerous escalation. At a NATO Council meeting with Istanbul Cooperation Initiative countries in Brussels, Qatar’s chargé d’affaires said the country had faced attacks since 28 February and had also condemned strikes on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Cyprus.
The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was launched at NATO’s 2004 Istanbul summit as a framework for practical security cooperation with the Gulf. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are its four partners, each choosing from a menu of activities rather than signing up to a fixed programme. Saudi Arabia and Oman have taken part in selected activities without joining. Work under the initiative has historically covered defence planning and budgeting, counter-terrorism, non-proliferation and civil preparedness.
The Ankara summit produced the first NATO-ICI meeting held on the margins of any alliance summit, with allies and Gulf partners agreeing flagship projects in areas including maritime security and countering uncrewed aerial systems. The summit declaration itself stated that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon and called on Tehran to respect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The post of Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood was created to give the alliance a single senior figure handling relationships across North Africa and the Middle East, following an internal review of NATO’s approach to its southern flank. Colomina, who also serves as NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, took the role alongside those duties.
Qatar hosts Al Udeid, which serves as the forward headquarters of US Central Command and has been used extensively for air operations across the region. Doha has simultaneously acted as a mediator in several regional files, a position complicated by finding itself among the states under fire.
