The recent visit of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the US and the meeting he held with the US President Donald Trump highlighted the mutual trust which the Qatari-US partnership has strengthened over the past years and relationship that has rapidly covered a wide range of cooperation areas including trade, investment, defense, counter-terrorism, education and cultural exchanges.
The Emir began his official US tour on April 6, with a meeting at the US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Then, he met with the US Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon on April 9. While the Tuesday summit at the White House between H H the Emir and President Trump was preceded by discussion over the phone on April 3, between the leaders on the obstacles to restoring unity in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “We are working on unity in that part of the Middle East and I think it’s working out very well; there are lot of good things happening,” US President was quoted saying.
President Trump praised his country’s ties with Qatar during the meeting with H H the Emir saying that the US and Qatar “have been great friends in so many ways” and “are working very well together” as he welcomed the H H the Emir to the White House for talks on a number of issues, including the Gulf diplomatic crisis which has entered its 11th month.
For his part, the Emir tweeted following his meeting with Trump saying: “I had great talks with President Trump. We discussed strategic and regional issues including the grave situation in Syria, and as for the GCC rift, we both agreed it should be resolved by dialogue as it’s doing unnecessary harm and impeding the fight against terrorism”.
The first annual Strategic Dialogue held in Washington DC on January 30, which coincided with 45th anniversary of the of the establishment of the Qatari-US relationship, witnessed high-level dialogue aiming to enhance the growing bilateral partnership on all fronts. Accordingly, the two states have developed partnership in various fields, not only on security and defense as many think, but business sector also has proved to be an important element in this partnership.
On the sidelines of the Qatar-US Economic Forum in Maimi and Washington, DC, a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed on Tuesday covering various areas, including pharmaceuticals, project management services and support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), among others. The Emir said that his country is planning to “double” the $125bn partnership in coming years.
All these developments in the bilateral ties of the two countries have come to strengthen the Qatar-US strategic relations despite the ongoing efforts of the siege countries to create a rift in the bilateral cooperation by spreading rumors and allegations accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism or by lobbying the US government against Qatar as the Wall Street Journal reported on April 2 saying “a firm established in Israel was contracted by the UAE to lobby the US government against Qatar”.
