The Gulf Arab state of Qatar will soon announce a defence production hub, the minister of state for defence affairs told the Global Security Forum in Doha on Monday.
Against the background of the Middle East conflict, which has drawn Iranian attacks on energy-rich Gulf countries, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said: “We are partnering with a regional partner, in addition to other partners such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, to make sure either we do local protection or we are investing in some of these companies.”
When asked about the threats faced by Qatar and the other Gulf countries from ballistic missiles, drones and cyberattacks, Al Thani said: “Soon we are going to announce a new partnership that we will do with the regional partners to establish a new initiative towards building capability into these three elements and others.”
He did not elaborate.
The Iran war has dealt a blow to Qatar. The country was forced to shut down much of its main LNG complex at Ras Laffan shortly after the start of hostilities and it suffered from restrictions on global shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar has historically had no large-scale defence production hub because its security model has relied on high-end foreign procurement and external security guarantees rather than building indigenous capacity.