US Ambassador to Qatar H E Timmy T. Davis. Pic: Abdul Basit
US Ambassador to Qatar H E Timmy T Davis in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula talks about expanding bilateral partnership between Qatar and the United States to new horizons in 2023...
Qatar and the United States look to expand their ‘model’ bilateral partnership to new horizons in 2023 with a number of events taking place throughout the year.
From Qatar-US Strategic Dialogue and high level visits to a women’s football exchange programme, film festival, and several other events and partnerships between the two countries, the relations will grow further, said US Ambassador to Qatar H E Timmy T. Davis in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula.
“I think our relationship with Qatar is a model for the region. I think it’s a model globally. I think there’s a great deal of opportunity in this relationship. My expectation is, in 2023, it will only grow,” said the Ambassador.
During the interview held at the US embassy in Doha, Ambassador Davis indicated that 2023 will be a remarkable year of bilateral relations for Qatar and the US. “Really, we are just looking forward to being good partners, good allies and good friends to the Qataris throughout 2023… We should set a time in January 2024 to look back on what I think is going to be a spectacular year in this relationship.”
Senior US officials are expected to visit Qatar in 2023 and a Qatar-US Strategic Dialogue will be held in February. “Our expectation is that there will be very senior people coming to Qatar from the United States in 2023,” said Davis.
“Around the Qatar-US Strategic Dialogue, there will be people who are at very high levels of the State Department. Our expectation is that there will be a big opportunity later in the year as well for high level visits… Certainly we will look for opportunities to get the highest levels of the United States and the highest levels of Qatar traveling to make sure that we’re able to communicate,” said Davis.
In February, Black History month will be marked with a film festival, music and cultural activities. Also several other events including a women’s football exchange program will take place around February 14. The global Women’s Economic Security programme will also begin.
“I also know that Qatar has a lot of goals for this year as well around sports, tourism, around their relations in the region and around the world,” said Davis.
The US also seeks to expand more people to people connections with Qatar and involve in areas such as humanitarian efforts and food security, besides the strong trade and investment ties between the countries.
“….When we think about investment, sometimes the strongest investment is in people. And so we want to learn from Qatar what their priorities are for humanitarian assistance. They have been so great around the world on food security, on support for women and girls,” said Davis.
“And so when we talk about joint ventures, one that will be most important to us is sharing common goals with Qatar on humanitarian assistance. And so that’s the sort of investment we think will be really important in this year,” he added.
In the higher education sector, the US looks to enhance its prevailing ties with Qatar Foundation and expects more Qatari students to seek education opportunities in the US.
“We think that 2023 is an opportunity to grow the relationships between Qatar Foundation and Education City and American universities.
We are always cheering on Qatari students who want to study in the US. Education City is just part of a larger global education effort by both the Qataris and the US,” said Davis.
He also lauded Arabic language training offered by Qatar University, saying it offers one of the best Arabic language programmes.
“I know that Qatar University has one of the great Arabic language programmes in the world. So students might find me walking around campus - going to class over there while I work on my Arabic this year,” said Davis. Besides educational and cultural ties, Qatar-US defence, security and military strategic partnership is also expected to grow stronger.
“I think our relationship on security can only get stronger. We have an airbase. We know that Qatar is investing to ensure it’s a base that can host Americans and Qataris, and act as a foundation for regional security. I think that what we’ll look forward to in the coming year is working together jointly on security and defence in the region,” said Davis.
“A number of Qataris have the opportunity to go to American military schools in the United States. We want to make sure that we’re doing our part to support that the idea of interoperability between our two nations only grows,” he added. With the US, Mexico and Canada hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026, best practices and lessons are to be taken from Qatar 2022.
“There are already conversations between Qatar, the United States, Mexico, Canada, to make sure that the best practices and the lessons learned from 2022 FIFA World Cup are transferred to North America,” said Davis.
“We know our best opportunity to put on a World Cup that even approaches the glorious nature of the Qatar World Cup is by listening to the Qataris and learning from their experience and making sure that they’re with us all along the way,” he added. During the interview, Ambassador Davis also discussed about areas of political policy, regional issues and Qatar’s efforts in international negotiations.
US Ambassador to Qatar H E Timmy T. Davis
In reply to a question on US administrations and their political policies related to the region, Ambassador Davis said, “There are some great foundations to the United States’ relationship with the region. I think that on issues like security and energy and education, on commerce and trade, the United States is very consistent.”
“I want to make sure that it’s clear that one of the most beautiful things about our system of government in the United States is the opportunities for citizens to have their voices heard. And nationally, we do that every two years in the House of Representatives, every six years in the Senate, and every four years for the President.”
He said that the relationship with Qatar is progressing and continues to progress. “I think that the trajectory for our relationship with Qatar and our relationships in the region is very stable with our partners.” Davis also said that Qatar has been a leader in resolving disputes and differences between countries through mediation and using soft power.
“Qatar is important to the United States. Qatar has been absolute leader in a lot ... they’re leaders in this way and great partners for us and so I think we would say that moments like the strategic dialogue are an opportunity for us to come together across all of the issues, but that the work that Qatar does in the effort to advance peace and security, we applaud and we only want to support,” he said.
Regarding Qatar’s role to narrow the disagreement gap between the US and Iranian views on the nuclear agreement, Davis said, “I think Qatar has been a strong partner. I thank Qatar’s enthusiasm and interest for attempting to be helpful on that.”
Further commenting on the issue he said, “The particular file is really important to us. We think it’s important for Iran to want to play a positive role in the region. We think it’s important for Iran to allow for the sorts of the carrying out of commitments that they’ve made. And so as important as the idea of having partners who are like-minded on big issues. It’s important for those actually involved in seeking peace and a long-term stability in the region by doing the hard work of acting in a responsible way.”
