Amir in Munich to attend security conference

Munich/Doha, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani arrived yesterday evening in Munich, the Federal Republic of Germany, to participate in the 55th session of the Munich Security Conference  (MSC) which will begin today and will run until February 17. H H the Amir is accompanied by an official delegation.

MSC is one of the largest and most important international conferences on the global security and defence policies. Twenty-one heads of state and 75 foreign and defence ministers participated in the last session of the MSC.

A strong strategic partnership, between Qatar and the MSC, emerged during the 18th session of Doha Forum. The year 2011 witnessed the convening of the first meeting of MSC officials in Doha, where the two sides agreed to work together more regularly so that the Qatari representation at the conference becomes at the highest level with the participation of HH the Amir along with other world leaders.

The 55th session of the MSC is expected to be the biggest and most important since the founding of the conference. Over the course of three days, MSC 2019 will be held under the chairmanship Wolfgang Ischinger and with the participation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Vice-President Mike Pence and a number of heads of governments and international community organisations.

This year’s conference will be held in exceptional circumstances amidst many problems, crises and events, which will give the 2019 session great importance.

High on the agenda of the MSC 2019 are themes such as the European Union’s self-assertion, transatlantic cooperation, as well as possible consequences of a renewed era of great power competition.

Additionally, experts from across the globe will discuss the future of arms control and cooperation in defence policy. The intersection between trade and international security will be examined, as will the effects of climate change and technological innovations on the international security.

“When looking at the current state of international affairs, it is difficult to escape the feeling that the world is not just witnessing a series of smaller and bigger crises, but that there is a more fundamental problem. Indeed, we seem to be experiencing a reshuffling of core pieces of the international order. A new era of great power competition is unfolding between the United States, China, and Russia, accompanied by a certain leadership vacuum in what has become known as the liberal international order,” said MSC Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger ahead of the upcoming conference.

The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, who is participating in the conference said she intends to work towards preserving international institution which is as important as it was during the Cold War.

The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas recently called on forming an “alliance of multilateralists” however the difficulty of achieving this goal emerges from cooperation with France, Germany’s most important partner in Europe.