On the 22th of March 2016, a discussion was held at the Kuwaiti Embassy, with HE Mr Ayman Mohammad Aladsani, Ambassador of Kuwait to the Czech Republic, concerning Kuwait, diplomacy and the current situation in the region. It was my fourth meeting in my capacity as coordinator between the Diplomatic Academy and the Prague Society.
The meeting began when His Excellency welcomed us and showed us around the whole of the Embassy, which was breathtaking, and like spending a couple of hours in the country of Kuwait. The primary meeting was focused on Kuwait and their neighbours, including Iran, Iraq and the Saudi Arabian states. Additionally, we analysed why immigration has been driving towards Central Europe, and why the whole crisis around it has been created and has not been solved yet.
The main goal of the Ambassador is to promote, enhance and protect the diplomatic relations of both countries in which His or Her Excellency lives. We found out that the Middle Eastern countries seek to establish, or have already established, similar organisations as those which we have in Europe, such as the European Union (an analogous organisation is called the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation). The Czech Republic has some historical similarities in common with Kuwait, owing to their being surrounded by aggressive states. Moreover, Kuwait is a very small country, yet owns 8-10% of the total oil resources in the world – so it must be regarded as one of the richest and most “powerful” countries as an actor in world affairs.
Lastly, we analysed why Saudi Arabia and other gulf states do not want to accept any refugees, and the reason makes sense: the refugees cannot accept a different culture and in addition, they have a different set of values. Furthermore, Kuwait in particular is not suitable for immigration because it would require crossing several deserts, making it barely possible to walk to Kuwait, and the country has a very small total size (18, 000 km2). The main point is, that the Europe states are in very complicated situation, because they are separate, why? Because every nation in EU is distinct – e.g. Czechs, Slovaks, the English, Germany, etc. – but Islamic states are oriented around a different point of view; they do not divide their national pride according to their states, but focusing on the other hand, on uniting their culture. I feel that this is the best way to protect culture as a whole unit and we, as European or other countries, have a lot to learn from Islamic culture as well or from the United Nations as a federation. The final point, which was new to us, was that Syrian schools are the best for learning Arabic languages.
