The Middle East Naval Commanders Conference (MENC) is set to expand its programme this year by bringing together renowned academics and industry experts from around the world to discuss the latest regional and international trends in maritime defence and security on a commercial, strategic and operational level.
MENC, under the theme “Resilience in the Maritime Domain – Confronting Asymmetric Threats”, is a key feature of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (Dimdex) 2020, scheduled to take place from March 16 to 18 at the Qatar National Convention Centre.
“Obviously the broader topic is maritime security but what we are trying to do is widen it to what I call resilience in the maritime domain so as to allow to have a debate and encompasses quite a lot of different factors of maritime security,” MENC director Dr Andreas Krieg told attendees of Dimdex’s diplomat briefing yesterday.
He said that such move will make Dimdex not only a meeting place for people who attend to buy hardware but “expanding it as well to academics and thinkers, and try to make this a very much interactive conference that is really trying to push the envelope.”
“We’re looking as well at the role of the market, private security companies, cybersecurity. We’re looking at a very complex maritime environment in the Gulf and it is about saying sea routes and maritime choke points, and obviously the time couldn’t be better to discuss,” Krieg said.
“Unfortunately we are at a time where the challenges to maritime security in this part of the world are very severe, we are on the third year of an ongoing blockade against Qatar but apart from that we have seen a lot of asymmetric tracks against shipping lanes in this part of the world,” he added.
The conference director said they invited thought leaders, senior stakeholders, naval and operational commanders to discuss an array of topics on pressing issues in the region.
MENC in this year’s edition of Dimdex will also provide more rooms to the audience to ask questions and engage in a series of discussions and debate.
Krieg noted that the conference will not be “a static delivery of presentations” but aims to engage people in a dialogue, broadening it up to students from the military colleges in Qatar, as well as to other students from the diverse academic centres of excellence in Doha.
“We also want to spread the word that this is not a side event of Dimdex but this is supposed to be one of the key events to actually help us move forward not just selling arms but thinking about how we can potentially provide security in this part of the world in the maritime domain without resulting to defence and security measures,” he added.
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