"Kuwait generously agreed to host an Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Centre, which will help NATO deepen relations with all of its Gulf partners," said NATO in its annual report 2012 presented Thursday by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a press conference.
The ICI which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE was launched in 2004 to develop security cooperation between the Alliance and Gulf countries.
"Over the past two decades, NATO has developed a network of structured partnerships with countries across the Euro-Atlantic area, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, as well as with other international organisations. " noted the report.
"The Alliance’s other partnerships also progressed in 2012. NATO is working towards agreeing a new political framework for the Mediterranean Dialogue to reinforce the existing relationship between the NATO Allies and the seven partner countries which participate in this initiative, it said. NATO is also stepping up its engagement with partners in new areas, such as cyber security and energy security, it underlined.
The Annual Report sets out the Alliance’s achievements in 2012 and the challenges it expects to face in 2013. One of the most pressing concerns is the economic situation and its impact on defence capabilities within the Alliance, stated the report. "Our security rests on our prosperity: you can’t be safe if you’re broke. But in turn, our prosperity rests on our security," Rasmussen told the press conference. "We have to invest to keep our societies safe. Because security threats won’t go away while we focus on fixing our economies," he underlined. However, the development has been uneven, and while total defence spending by the Allies has been going down, the defence spending of emerging powers has been going up, he said.
"If these trends continue, we could face serious gaps that would place NATO’s military capacity and political credibility at risk," warned Rasmussen. The report said that in 2012, the Alliance continued its mission in Afghanistan – the most militarily demanding and significant operational commitment to date. At the same time, the Alliance continued to play a vital role in ensuring a safe and secure environment in Kosovo.
It also continued to counter the threat of terrorism in the Mediterranean and play its part in the international community’s efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden, where, as a result of those collective efforts, attacks were at an all-time low in 2012, noted the report.
NATO also agreed to augment Turkey’s air defence capabilities by deploying Patriot missiles in order to defend the population and territory of Turkey and contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the Alliance’s border, it said.
Afghan security forces will have full responsibility for security across the country by the end of 2014, added te report.
