The chairman of the Munich Security Conference Core Group (MSC) underlined the importance of “bridge-building efforts” to help foster peace and security in the region and across the world.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ), Wolfgang Ischinger stated that the MSC is offering a platform, which can be used to address some of the pressing security issues.
“We are committed and are going to continue this effort of bridge building in this region, and in other issues, for example think of Ukraine, in Europe, and unresolved issues in the Balkans, North Korea, South East Asia,” he said, citing the successful organising of the MSC Meeting.
High-level representatives of governments, international institutions, academics, and other dignitaries and diplomats have gathered in Doha to take part in the Meeting, which concluded yesterday at the National Museum of Qatar.
About efforts to resolve the regional rift in the GCC, Ischinger cited in his view ‘as a practising diplomat’ that “there is an increasing awareness by all sides that this cannot go on eternally and must end in some shape or form.”
“But quite frankly this is my personal assessment, this is of course, as other diplomatic issues, at the end of the day, also a question of face saving,” he pointed out. “The solution that is necessary needs to be structured in a way that neither this country, nor the Saudi leadership, nor anyone else is seen as a loser, the question is can a win-win situation be created?”
“I think the awareness is rising that this must end because the other issues are so overwhelmingly important that the region cannot afford, the speechlessness between important players in the region,” Ischinger said.
He hopes to hit the right agenda for the meeting in Munich in February 2020, which is expected to include some discussions on the challenges in the region.
“We believe that the Middle East and its unresolved problems are among the biggest challenges to international peace and security and we would be making a mistake if we did not put that at the top level of our list of priorities for Munich,” Ischinger noted.