Qatar's Emir pays first visit to NATO

On 17 November, the Emir of the State of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, visited NATO Headquarters to meet with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

This was the first visit of a Head of State of Qatar to NATO Headquarters and the first visit to NATO of a Head of State of a member country of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI).

Menu of activities

The visit is a milestone in NATO-Qatar cooperation in the framework of ICI.

This high-level political consultations focused on the implementation of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, under which NATO currently offers 160 practical activities for cooperation to its ICI partners, through the "Menu of Practical Cooperation" developed for the year 2007.

This number represents an increase of 100 per cent of the cooperative activities made available to Qatar and the other ICI participating countries, going from 80 activities offered by NATO in 2006 to 160 activities offered for 2007.

Other topics discussed during the meeting included NATO's transformation, the regional situation in the Middle East, NATO’s contribution to the stabilisation of Afghanistan and the different items on the NATO agenda for the Riga Summit taking place at the end of this month.