MANAMA: The official state visit by HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has confirmed the depth and robustness of the distinguished relations between Bahrain and Pakistan, Hamad Al Amer, the Undersecretary for Regional Affairs and the Gulf Cooperation Council, said.
“It has also reflected the keenness of the two countries to boost their political, economic, security and social partnerships and to consolidate their mutual interaction, the protection of their peoples and the preservation of their legitimate interests, particularly with the new status of Asian countries and their steadily growing economies,” he said.
“Therefore, heading east towards Asia is a strategic vision necessitated by the sensitive circumstances and delicate conditions that demand a high level of awareness and a constant attentiveness to pre-emptive security under a new strategic concept premised – I believe – on five components,” the foreign ministry senior diplomat in a statement published by the Bahrain News Agency (BNA), said.
“The first component is related to geography since Bahrain is located in Asia while the second component is civilizational,” he said.
“All the world’s civilizations started on this continent and then spread to Europe and the new world. The three divine religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, developed Greek and Roman civilizations. The other major civilizations that appeared in Asia were the Chinese, the Indian and the Persian civilisations,” he said.
A third component is the modernization and the economy that are linked to the Asian powers called the Asian Tigers (ASEAN, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong), and to the traditional Asian powers, particularly Japan. These powers and the rest of the world rely on the most important source in the Gulf, energy, as well as on existing and promising markets.
The fourth component is the major Asian blocs, namely ASEAN, SAARC and Central Asia blocs, Shanghai bloc, ASEAN Plus Three (i.e. G10), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a forum for Pacific Rim member countries that include besides Asian states , the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Together, they form the greatest global economic power, the official said.
“Hence, the strategic vision of His Majesty the King to develop the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – adopted by the GCC Summit in Kuwait in 2009 – and to highlight the economic dimension by going east to Asia to consolidate relations between people in the Gulf and in Asia,” Al Amer said.
“The Bahraini diplomacy moved to implement this major dimension through the Manama vision that was adopted by the GCC and the ASEAN in 2008, and through two major meetings held in Manama in 2013: The Gulf-Asian Dialogue (GAD) and the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). They confirmed that the GCC and Asian countries are likely to become the world’s greatest economic bloc,” he said.
A natural outcome of heading east was the unanimous selection of Manama by the Asian countries as the Capital of Asian Tourism 2014.
According to Al Amer, tourism and the media have had a prominent role in the impressive development and progress in the Kingdom of Bahrain and have created a model with crucial political, economic, cultural and civilization-related significance.
“The fifth dimension is that the Asian continent comprises more than half of the world’s population, mainly in China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. They represent an increasingly huge market for resources, trade exchanges, manpower and technology for countries of the third world,” he said.
“Therefore, the official state visit of His Majesty the King to Pakistan and its outcome, in terms of the agreements signed between the two countries in various fields is considered a positive development of their bilateral relations. The visit is the basis that will be used to create a promising future for bilateral relations in particular and to build bridges of geographic, strategic and economic relations with the emerging Asian powers in general in a way that achieves mutual interests and reinforces cooperation in the near future,” Al Amer said.