Qatar and Cuba
Qatar and Cuba
Deepening relations rooted in mutual respect
The territory of the State of Qatar consists of a 100-mile-long peninsula that protrudes into the Persian Gulf from eastern Arabia. Humans first settled the territory, according to archeological evidence, 50,000 years ago. The region came under the control of the Sasanian Empire, also known as the Second Persian Empire, during the third century of the Common Era.
The local ruler and the people converted to Islam in 628, with the arrival of an envoy of the Prophet. In the middle of the seventh century, the Islamic conquest of Persia brought an end to the Sasanian Empire, which culminated in the emergence of the extensive Abbasid Caliphate by the ninth century. During this period, Qatar was a horse and cattle breeding center as well as a center for pearl hunting and the international pearl trade. The inhabitants were prosperous, and they constructed high quality homes and public buildings. With the disintegration of the Caliphate, the prosperity of Qatar declined.
Qatar was seized by the Kingdom of Ormus in the fourteenth century, and its pearls were one of the main sources of income for the kingdom. In the sixteenth century, Ormus became a vassal state of Portugal, as a result of the seizing of a significant portion of Eastern Arabia by Portugal. In 1550, the inhabitants of the region voluntarily submitted to Ottoman rule, preferring it to Portuguese control. The Ottomans, however, were expelled by a tribal federation and its emirate in 1670.
There was much competition among regional powers for the control of the peninsula of Qatar in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which included the arrival of the British as well as the emergence of a force of Qatari rebels. In 1868, the British imposed a settlement, which included recognition of Qatar as a sheikhdom.
However, British domination was not sustained, as the ruling Al Thani tribe in Qatar submitted to Ottoman rule in 1871. But there were tensions in Qatari-Ottoman relations, as a result of conflicting interests, resulting in military conflict, which ultimately compelled the Ottomans to concede defeat. The result was the emergence of Qatar as an autonomous country within the Ottoman Empire.
Prior to and during World War I, the British attained military presence and political control of the region. Qatar became a British protectorate in 1916, when Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani agreed to bring Qatar under the control of the British system of administration that included nine Persian Gulf emirates. Abdullah agreed to not enter into relations with any other power without the prior consent of the British government, and the British agreed to protect Qatar from aggression and to allow internal autonomy.
In 1935, Abdullah granted an oil concession to a British company, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Oil reserves were discovered in Qatar in 1939, which were developed following World War II, intensifying British interests. Oil exportation began in 1949, becoming Qatar's main source of revenue, inasmuch as the pearl trade had collapsed, as a result of the entrance in the world market of the Japanese cultured pearl during the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1968, Britain announced its withdrawal from political control of the Persian Gulf. As a result, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (a federation of seven emirates) became independent states.
Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani was the ruling Emir of Qatar from 1995 to 2013. During his rule, Qatar was converted from a small desert backwater into a major world power on the basis of exploitation of the nation's oil fields and the discovery and tapping of the nation's natural gas reserves, the third largest in the world.
Hamad was the son of the previous Emir, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. Born in 1952, Hamad graduated from the prestigious British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1971, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces of Qatar, assuming the rank of general and army chief of staff in 1972. He subsequently was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Qatar. In 1977, he was named minister of defense and was appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar.
In the early 1980s, Hamad led the Supreme Planning Council, which was responsible for establishing the nation's basic economic and social policies. Beginning in 1992, he had growing responsibility for running the country, including the development of oil and natural gas resources.
Qatar's economy experienced a downturn from 1982 to 1989, as a result of OPEC quotas on crude oil production and lower prices for oil. This compelled a reduction in state spending, which resulted in private firms laying off expatriate employees.
The downturn, combined with projections that oil reserves will be largely depleted in the near future, had the effect of reorienting the economy toward exploitation of natural gas reserves and the exportation of liquified natural gas. And it led to the development of projects in heavy industry, such as an oil refinery, a fertilizer plant, a steel plant, and a petrochemical plant. The heavy industry projects are mostly joint ventures with European and Japanese firms. In addition, it led to the diversification of economic and diplomatic relations, seeking relations in all regions of the world. These steps led to the strengthening of the economy of the nation.
In 1995, Hamad and his father had a falling out, as a result of the latter's attempts to retake some authority that he had conferred on his son. With the support of his family, the armed forces, and the cabinet, Hamad took control of the government in a bloodless coup d'état while his father was vacationing in Switzerland. His father lived in exile in France and in Abu Dhabi following the coup, returning to Qatar in 2004.
During Hamad's eighteen-year rule, the development of liquified natural gas production converted Qatar into one of the richest countries of the world, with a per capita income of $86,440 per year. Prior to 1995, natural resources had not been developed to their full potential, due to Hamad's father's reluctance, for fear that it would change the society, according to the French journalist Olivier Da Lage.
The Qatar Investment Authority was established in 2005 for the purpose of managing the country's oil and natural gas surpluses. It has acquired many businesses and major companies of the Western world and in the Asia Pacific, including prestigious retail outlets, entertainment, and hotels. In addition, Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup.
In conjunction with his second wife, Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, Hamad has been an advocate for education and children's causes. In 1995, they founded the Qatar Foundation. In 2005, the Emir donated $100 million to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
Qatar relies heavily on labor from other countries, inasmuch as its native population was not sufficient to support its rapidly expanding economy. Workers from other countries constitute 86% of the population and 94% of the workforce, mostly from the countries of South Asia and other Arab countries. None of its two million residents, citizens and non-citizens, live below the poverty line, and less than 1% are unemployed. Qatar imposes no income taxes on individuals, be they foreign or domestic. Its human development index is rated as very high.
Qatar has high health care standards. Citizens have coverage through a national health insurance plan, and expatriates have coverage through their employer. The government provides education, which is compulsory through high school. Qatar University, established in 1973, is the country's largest and oldest institute of higher education.
Qatar's carbon dioxide emission per person is one of the highest in the world, which led to the launching in 2003 of National Vision 2030, which emphasizes environmental protection as one of the main goals. The National Vision pledges to develop sustainable alternatives to oil-based energy, including harnessing solar power. The Qatar Foundation has ben active in supporting the attainment of national solar power goals, establishing Qatar Solar, which created a joint venture with the Qatar Development Bank and the German company SolarWorld, resulting in the establishment of Qatar Solar Technologies.
Qatar has a program of "Qatarization," which requires joint ventures and government departments to strive to move Qatari nationals into positions of greater authority. This has stimulated foreign educated Qatari nationals to return home to assume positions formerly occupied by expatriates.
Qatar is increasingly using its ports in the trade between Europe and Africa and between Europe and China. Qatar is part of the Chinese Maritime Silk Road, both historically and at present.
In 2012, Hamad became the first head of state to visit Gaza after the 2006 elections won by Hamas and the imposition of a blockade by Israel. He pledged US$400 million in humanitarian aid to Hamas, for infrastructure construction and hospitals. At the same time, Qatar has maintained diplomatic and business relations with Israel.
Although accused by some of financing terrorism, the Qatari government passed anti-terrorist laws in 2004, 2010, 2014, 2017, and 2019, including anti-money laundering legislation. According to Wikipedia, in 2020 the U.S. State Department sent its coordinator for counterterrorism to Doha to thank Qatar for their efforts against terrorism and to discuss Qatar's recent efforts in combatting the financing of terrorism.
In 2013, Hamad handed over power to his fourth son by his second wife, declaring that the time has come for a new generation to assume responsibilities. Hamad is now popularly referred to as Father Emir. He has received awards from the governments of France, Germany, United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Thus, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani became the eighth Emir of Qatar. Tamin has led no significant departure of the powerful legacy of Hamad. The transition to the new generation has been characterized by continuity.
The warm and growing relationship between Qatar and Cuba
Qatar has been a hereditary monarchy ruled by the House of Thani since 1868, when a formal agreement between Mohammed bin Thani and Great Britain recognized Qatar as autonomous with respect to its domestic affairs. The House of Thani endured through Ottoman Rule and the return of British Rule.
Qatar is considered a semi-constitutional monarch. The Emir appoints the prime minister and the cabinet, and the 2003 Constitution of Qatar grants considerable executive, legislative, and judicial authority to the Emir. A Consultative Assembly, with thirty of its forty-five members elected by the people, has authority to block legislation.
Qatar's semi-constitutional monarchy is in many ways very different from Cuba's political system of people's democracy. But one of the basic principles that guides the construction today of an alternative more just world order is that differences in political systems should not prevent the development of mutually beneficial commercial relations as well as relations of solidarity between peoples.
Western analysts describe both the Qatari and Cuban systems as authoritarian, without appreciating their inner logic as natural expressions of the history, culture, and political-economic conditions of the two nations. The West has an abstract understanding of democracy, based on a superficial formulation of its own political systems. It believes that it has the right to impose this abstract concept of democracy on the world, not appreciating that this policy constitutes a form of imperialism.
As Qatar arrived to occupy an outstanding place in the world-economy, it sought to create associations with private and public sectors everywhere in the world. This orientation led to the development of friendship between Qatar and Cuba, and the development of mutually beneficial relations.
Diplomatic relations between Cuba and Qatar were established in 1989, a time in which Qatar was embarking on an economic ascent on the basis of the diversification of production and commercial relations. It was in the period 1998 to 2001 that the relation between Cuba and Qatar was solidified. The Cuban embassy in Qatar was inaugurated in 1998. In 2000, then Emir Hamad made an official visit to Cuba. In May 2001, Fidel arrived in Qatar for an official visit. And in September 2001, the Emir traveled to Cuba for the opening of the Embassy of Qatar in Havana. He again traveled to Cuba in 2008.
Qatar and Cuba share common interests with respect to health, biotechnology, tourism, education, and sport. In addition, they have similar foreign policy principles, in that both nations have stressed in international forums respect for international law and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, such as the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the rejection of interference in the affairs of nations; they both have repeatedly spoken against the application of economic sanctions.
The Cuban Hospital of Dukan, opened in 2012, expresses the bilateral relation between the two countries. Some 550 Cuban health professionals work at the center, which is viewed with great prestige by renowned institutions and by the media of the Persian Gulf region.
Cuban-Qatari health collaboration began in 1997. Especially noteworthy was the presence of the Cuban Henry Reeve Brigade to combat COVID-19 during 2020 and 2021. At present, 1,232 Cuban health care professionals work in Qatar in 13 institutions.
The Cuban press speaks favorably of the Vision of Qatar 2030, for its emphasis on modernity and prosperity as goals with respect to socioeconomic and environmental development and as premises for the formation of citizens who master the newest technologies of our times. Moreover, the Cuban press notes, Cuba and Qatar share the view that the family is the essential cell of the society.
The relation between Qatar and Cuba appears to have evolved on a foundation of a personal friendship between the Father Emir and Fidel. On November 20, 2016, at the Plaza of the Revolution, where tens of thousands had gathered on the occasion of Fidel's death to express their sentiments of affection for the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Father Emir Hamad arrived to the podium to describe Fidel as “a giant in the struggle for national liberation" and as a "symbol of resistance." He declared that Fidel:
"maintained an unshakable faith in the right of peoples to self-determination, at a time when most of the world's peoples were under colonialism. He fought for the causes in which he had faith, and he inspired millions of human beings who lived under the yoke of colonialism in different parts of the planet. He occupied a pinnacle place among the great heroes of the liberation movements of the twentieth century.
"He also supported the just Arab causes and, above all, the central cause of the Arabs: The Palestinian cause, for which he deserves our thanks for the support he gave to the Palestinian people in their struggle for the attainment of their inalienable rights. He also maintained honorable positions in support of the Revolution of the Million Martyrs in Algeria."
True words of respect that were applauded on that memorable occasion and remembered in Cuba today.
During the recent visit to Qatar by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani described the friendship and mutual respect between his father and Fidel as the foundation of the relations between Qatar and Cuba. Both Tamim and Díaz-Canel, leaders of the next generation who continue with the projects of their predecessors, expressed their common will to maintain and strengthen the relations between the two nations.
Emir Tamim received the Cuban President at Lusail Palace in Doha on December 3, 2023. The Cuban press reported that throughout the visit the Emir was friendly and affable. In a meeting with the press, the Emir began by commenting that Qatari relations with Cuba are historic and a relation that “honors us much.” An official communication reported that the Emir praised Qatari-Cuban cooperation, especially in the sectors of investment, commercial interchange, and medicine. For his part, the Cuban President reported via social media that “our ample conversations in Doha addressed mutual opportunities for strengthening our economic ties. . . . We share a common interest in deepening political and diplomatic ties, and we reaffirmed our will to diversify and amplify our economic ties.” During the visit, the Cuban president also met with thirty-one leading businesspersons in Qatari. He also visited the Cuban Hospital of Duckhan, known and praised by all as the “Hospital of the Cubans.”
Previously, Emir Tamim traveled to Cuba in 2015, when he was received by then President of the Council of State, Raúl Castro. On that occasion, agreements of collaboration were made, today maintained.
The relation between Cuba and Qatar is yet one more sign of an alternative, more just and sustainable world order under construction, forged by exceptional leaders committed to the sovereignty of their nations and the wellbeing of their peoples. A relation of mutual respect among peoples and nations that are culturally different but share the common principles that must guide the future of humanity.
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