Doha – Sharq

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His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, participated in the 58th Munich International Security Conference, in Germany, which started yesterday, amid the absence of Russia, and the presence of more than 30 heads of state and government, along with more than 100 ministers .
HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that he had fruitful dialogues on regional and international security issues with a number of officials participating in the conference.
On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs met with HE Mr. Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State of the friendly United States, where they reviewed relations and a number of regional and international issues.
During his meeting with Blinken, the Foreign Minister praised Washington’s diplomatic efforts on Ukraine, while Blinken stressed during the meeting that cooperation between Qatar and the United States is increasing at the global level, noting that the meeting dealt with a number of issues, including the situation in Ukraine. For its part, German channel Deutsche Welle said that the conference started yesterday afternoon in the absence of official representatives from Russia, in light of the currently escalating tensions on the Ukrainian borders. The conference will last for three days in Munich, the capital of the state of Bavaria, and its agenda mainly focuses on the Western strategy to confront the Ukrainian crisis, according to the channel. In addition to the Ukrainian crisis, issues will be discussed, most notably strategies for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, climate and energy crises, the Iranian nuclear file, the structure of security systems in the world, and the security situation in the Sahel region in Africa.
Lavrov is absent
from the Munich conference, for the first time since 1991, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who usually represents his country at this conference. Hundreds of decision-makers participating in the conference “deeply regret that Russia did not represent itself in it.”
The Kremlin said last week that Russia’s official absence from the Munich conference reflects “the level to which the relations between East and West have deteriorated,” and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the conference had become “biased to the West and lost the character of comprehensiveness and objectivity.” Boris Rogge, Vice President of the Munich Security Conference, told Al Jazeera yesterday that there are challenges facing Western countries in conjunction with the convening of the Munich Conference, and added that the regular convening of the conference will help overcome crises, explaining that the conference will discuss the Ukrainian-Russian crisis, and that Russia, despite its absence from the conference, It will closely follow what is happening in Munich. On the current tension between the West and Russia, Rogge added that he believes that NATO and the European Union “have a unified position, which is that they will respond forcefully through sanctions and political measures if Russia invades Ukraine.”
Guterres warns
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of “catastrophic” repercussions in the event of the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, expressing his deep concern about the escalation of tensions and increasing speculation about a military conflict in Europe.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations said during the opening of the annual Munich Security Conference: If this happens, “it will be catastrophic” and that there is no alternative to diplomacy, adding, “I am often asked whether we are in a new Cold War, my answer is that the global security threat is now more complex and perhaps greater than it was at that time.”
Guterres called on all parties to exercise extreme caution in their rhetoric to reduce, not inflame, tensions.
Invasion scenario
For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock said that the most likely scenario for a Russian attack on Ukraine is not a complete invasion but a covert operation or coup.
“A full invasion scenario might be possible, but I’m not sure it’s the most likely scenario,” she told the Munich Security Conference.
“What worries me most is that the most likely scenario is a backdoor operation or a coup” or things like a cyber attack or an attack on Ukraine’s infrastructure, she added.

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