Many wondered about the recent visit of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, may God protect him, to the United Kingdom, which they considered surprising, especially in this critical time in our region and the entire Middle East, but the answers are usually between the lines and the footnotes, reading pre -emptive movements and analyzing some of the results and fruits achieved by Bahrain a few days before that visit.
Initially, we must look at the visit from a strategic perspective according to the historical relationship between Bahrain and the United Kingdom, which I do not want to address the details; Because everyone knows it.
Let us first address the Defense Cooperation Agreement between the two countries, despite Bahrain hosting the largest naval base outside the territory of Britain, but that rule provides qualitative training for the employees of the Bahrain Defense Force in various military aspects, as it clearly appears vision of His Highness the Prime Minister of the security future in the region, and establishes a more integrated and flexible defense situation, which is vital in the complex regional security scenarios And the fast that we are witnessing today, which require coordinated and effective responses.
The follower of the first “C -SIPA” agreement knows that it came in a partnership formula between Bahrain and America, and when Britain entered it – during the visit – it is thus achieving a tripartite cooperation between Bahrain, the United Kingdom and the United States, enhances regional security and restores strategic balance accounts in the region, and indicates a new transformation towards a multilateral security structure characterized by complementarity and comprehensiveness between three major parties that can address Complex and interconnected security challenges in the Middle East.
Because security is not an isolated goal of economic growth, we can read this from the name of the agreement “The Agreement of Security Integration and Comprehensive Flooding”, and this comprehensive prosperity emphasizes the expected benefits of multiple -direction, which will include accelerating economic diversification.
That is why the British described Bahrain’s investment of 2 billion pounds as a sterling form of “economic diplomacy”, which appears in the exchange item between Bahraini and British companies, as it encourages the latter to bring its expertise, techniques and business models to Bahrain, as they considered it a “great confidence” in the United Kingdom’s economic stability and the capabilities of its growth, after its exit from the European Union, and here we can realize the size of the weight of the Crown Prince’s visit Prime Minister for Great Britain.
Another thing that many may not know, which is Britain’s support for the nomination of the Kingdom of Bahrain for the membership of the United Nations Security Council as a non -permanent member, which may be one of the reasons for this visit to confirm that Bahrain is a vital and pivotal strategic partner in the region for the United Kingdom.
His Highness the Crown Prince did not leave the appropriate Prime Minister without confirming his British counterpart on the urgent need to reduce the escalation between Iran and Israel and return to dialogue with the United States, as well as renew the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid, which is an opportunity to communicate the position of Bahrain; What happens is completely clear.
Although the visit is short, it came with a high intensity of the fruitful results, which were planned not a short time ago, between the two sides in order to come out with this integrated pattern, and to indicate that these agreements are not just an expression of goodwill, but rather a strategic response to a volatile security environment and achievement of prosperity and development at the same time.
* Captain – Editor -in -chief of the English newspaper “Daily Tribune”
