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UAE demonstrated tolerance while dealing with Covid-19: Minister

The UAE demonstrated its complete belief in the principles of tolerance and coexistence while battling Covid-19, a UAE minister has said.

“The UAE has extended the hand of cooperation and synergy to all countries of the world to face the pandemic and address its effects and repercussions. This confirms that the values of tolerance, peace, solidarity and brotherhood in the UAE society are firm values that will continue to exist as long as humanity exists,” said Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bawardi, the UAE’s Minister of State for Defence Affairs.

This came as he announced the fifth edition of the Ministry of Defence’s annual leadership conference. The ‘Wars in the 21st century’ conference will be held virtually on November 16 under the theme ‘The role of defence in national resilience beyond 2020’.

The minister said the world is facing a “real threat to humanity” in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, which has become a “common enemy of mankind, requiring joint international efforts to confront and contain it”.

Countries should be prepared to face complex challenges that go beyond conventional wars and battles, the minister said. The Covid-19 pandemic is a case study in building national resilience, he added.

“Our real goal should be to prepare countries to face these challenges in the future, while ensuring a high level of resilience, protecting the existence of our countries and finding ways to recover from these crises quickly,” said Al Bawardi.

Resilience amid a pandemic

The conference aims to shed light on national resilience in an era of epidemics. It aims to prepare future leaders who are able to achieve preemption, foresight and speed of adaptation to respond to emerging challenges by arming them with the latest insights in the fields of security and defence. Key topics include:

>> Military experts and government representatives will discuss contemporary threats like Covid-19, climate change and irregular migration, and the challenges they pose to normal life.

>> Explore the concept of national resilience in the context of contemporary threats and how this resilience can be built and strengthened.

>> The important role of the defence organisations in preparing and supporting national capability and confronting non-military threats.

>> Contributions of the UAE Armed Forces to national resilience and the UAE government’s efforts in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key speakers

Speeches will be delivered by Al Bawardi and AbdulRahman bin Mohammed Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention. Other experts include Dr Meir Elran, Head of the Internal Security Programme at the Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University; Mike Bush, Head of Operations of the Covid-19 All-of-Government Response Group of the New Zealand Cabinet; and Brigadier Dr Aysha Aldhaheri, Commander of the Medical Services Corps, UAE Armed Forces.

anjana@khaleejtimes.com