Washington, September 19 (QNA) – Energy Strategist and Foreign Policy Advisor Dr. Umud Shokri said that the State of Qatar played an important role in many international issues during the past decade, noting its good regional and global relations.
In an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), he said that the United Nations General Assembly is the best place for leaders of countries to meet and try to find solutions to global issues, such as energy security and climate change, adding that there are some issues in the Middle East, cannot be solved without the cooperation of all countries, especially Qatar.
On the keenness of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on participating in the United Nations General Assembly, Dr. Shokri explained that the meeting is a forum and a creative opportunity for all leaders to apply bilateral and multilateral diplomacy to tackle local, regional, and global issues. Without global efforts and cooperation, it will be very difficult for individual countries to find solutions to these issues, he stressed.
Major global issues such as climate change, poverty, and some humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen, will be intractable for global powers without the help of regional players, like Qatar, Dr. Shokri said.
Talking about the Qatar-US relationship and its progress in the past decade, Dr. Shokri pointed out that the past decade, has seen a gradual increase in the volume of trade between Qatar and the US, adding that the Qatari-US relationship could be viewed as a strong strategic partnership, as it covers cooperation in defense energy security and counter-terrorism, as well as regional stability. He stressed that statistics indicate that the two countries will be able to increase the volume of trade to more than USD 10 billion by next year, considering that this is the best opportunity for US as well as Qatari private and government companies to strengthen relations and increase the volume of trade exchange as well.
Qatari private and government companies have good financial potential even after the (Covid-19) pandemic, Dr. Shokri said, indicating that Qatar has shown that it has good potential in terms of financial and technological capacity, which will help it invest in energy infrastructure projects in US such as LNG and renewable energy. American energy companies possess the technology, and Qatar possess financial capacity, he said pointing that this will give an opportunity to potentially increase trade volume by more than USD 50 billion in the next decade as well.
Regarding the cooperation of the two countries in the field of combating terrorism and the challenges they face, Shokri stated that stability in the region is a priority for the GCC countries as well as the US. Without stability in the region, no country will be able to implement their development plan, he stressed.
In the context of the status of energy partnerships between the State of Qatar and the US, especially in the natural gas and renewable energy sectors, Dr. Shokri pointed out that in 2021 and 2022, the world faced the energy crisis, especially the European Union after the Russian-Ukrainian war, and Qatar increased the volume of LNG production. Last year, Qatar maintained its position as the World biggest gas supplier, and it plans to increase LNG production capacity by 40 percent by 2026 while the US occupies second place in LNG production. Qatar has the upper hand in maintaining its position and increasing the size as well as production and export capacity, he noted.
Dr. Umud Shokri also touched on the vision of the next American administration for the Middle East, saying that regardless of who comes to power in November 2024, the United States needs to implement a new foreign policy towards the Middle East and to strengthen its relationship with Qatar and other Arab countries. If the US administration does not review its foreign policy towards the Middle East, Beijing and Moscow will find a foothold in the region and their influence will strengthen after the Ukrainian crises is resolved. (QNA)
