Conferences

The Gulf Research Center and the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University held a joint seminar under the tile “Japan-GCC Cooperation Forum” in order to explore the various means through which Japan and the GCC states can improve their relations and cooperation. The seminar featured presentation from Prof. Toshiya Hoshino, Dean of the OSIPP and Advisor to the President of Osaka University for International Affairs, GRC Chairman Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the GRC Foundation and Noriko Suzuki, Director of the GRC Foundation Asia office. Following the seminar, Dr. Sager and Prof. Hoshino signed a memorandum of understanding between the GRC and OSIPP to include cooperation on joint research and future events.

As part of their trip to South Korea and Japan, the Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the Gulf Research Center Foundation and Noriko Suzuki, Director of the GRC Foundation Asia office in Tokyo, Japan held the following meetings/events in Tokyo on April 16th: ° A meeting with Yuji Takagi, President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) and Dr. Akira Matsunaga, Deputy Director of the Sasakawa Middle East Islam Fund to talk about cooperation including participation at the Gulf Research Meeting ° Dr. Sager held a briefing for Sojitz Senior Management on Developments in the Gulf region. The briefing followed a private session with Yutuka Kase, Chairman of the Board of Sojitz Coperation. Present at the briefing were Shinichi Taniguchi, Executive Vice-President, Shuhei Inoue, Corporate Advisor and Michihiko Fukui, Leader for Middle East and Africa in the Regional Coordination and Administration Department. ° A meeting with the Ache Corporation, Keiji Nambu ° The GRC held a joint workshop with the Japan Institute of International Affairs entitled Evaluating the US pivot to Asia: Gulf and North-East Asian perspectives on April 16, 2013 in Tokyo. While Dr. Sager, GRC Chairman, provided the Gulf point of view, Dr. Seiichiro Takagi gave a presentation on how the US strategy shift is seen from Northeast Asia and specifically Japan. ° Following the workshop at the Japan Institute for International Affairs, Amb. Yukio Satoh, Vice-Chairman of the JIIA hosted a dinner for the GRC delegation ° A meeting with Mr. Komatsu and Kiyoshi Yoshimitsu of the Komatsu Research and Advisory (KRA)

Continuing on their visit to Japan, GRC Chairman, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Director of the GRC Foundation, Dr. Christian Koch and Director of the GRC Foundation Asia office in Japan, Noriko Suzuki, held the following meetings: ° With Mr. Masanori Iwahori, Executive Reporter, and Tetsuya Karata, Senior Producer of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) ° Ms. Yuriko Koike, Member of the House of Representatives in Japan and former Minister of Defense. She was accompanied by Mr. Mizuta Masahiro, Secretary to Ms. Koiko. ° Mr. Nobuhisa Degawa of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). Mr. Degawa conducted a wide-ranging interview with Dr. Sager on current developments in the Gulf and the Middle East ° Mr. Takeshi Kondo, General Manager, and Mr. Toshiyuki Kawahara, Assistant Manager of Fuji Electric ° Mr. Shuhei Inoue of Sojitz Corporation and Mr. Tada Yukio and the Sojitz Research Institute ° Mr. Satoru Nakamura, General Manager in the Planning and Development Department of the ITOCHU Corporation.

The Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the Gulf Research Center Foundation and Noriko Suzuki, Director of the GRC Foundation Asia office in Tokyo, Japan held a series of meetings during their visit to Japan. This included: ° Toyoto Tsusho Corporation headed by its Chairman of the Board Junzo Shimizu; Hajime Sakaguchi, General Manager of the Public Affairs Department; and Mitsuru Konishi, Project General Manager at the Public Affairs Department ° Mr. Tomohiko Taniguchi, Councillor at the Cabinet Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan ° NEC Cooperation led by its Senior Vice-President and Head of its Global Business Unit, Takayuki Morita; Masahiro Ikeno, General Manager of the Europe, Middle East and Africa Division; Keita Ito, Deputy General Manager of the Americas and EMEA Sales Division; Akio Sumitomo; Senior Manager of the Americas and EMEA Sales Division and Naoyoshi Takagi, Department Manager for Middle East and North Africa in the Americas and EMEA Sales Division

GRC Chairman Dr. Abdulaziz Sager participated in the Arab – Turkish Dialogue Forum which took place in the Kingdom of

A meeting of the Strategic Studies Network coordinated by the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies was held in Venice. GRC Chairman Dr. Abdulaziz Sager attended the meeting which was co-organized with the GRC program at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice directed by Prof. Matteo Legrenzi and saw the participation of various experts who drafted a perspective agreement to resolve the current dispute with Iran over its nuclear program. It is hoped that the draft agreement, which will soon be published, will help both technical experts and decision makers to reach an actual agreement that would lead to a peaceful resolution of the dispute and a safer and more prosperous Gulf. The views expressed were diverse and sometimes antithetical but the exercise was extremely helpful in clarifying the concrete difficulties faced by negotiators in Istanbul and Kazakhstan.

GRC Chairman Dr. Abdulaziz Sager participated in the 49th annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) held in Munich, Germany

Dr. Abdulaziz Sager and Dr. Christian Koch held a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Swiss government in Bern, Switzerland, on September 25, 2012 focusing on the key recent developments in the Gulf region including the political environment, the state of the economy, as well as the situations in Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Attending from the Swiss side were Amb. Wolfgang Bruelhart, Assistant State Secretary for the Middle East and North Africa Division in the Directorate of Political Affairs, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA); Stephan Kellenbrger, Deputy Regional Coordinator for Middle East; Francis Piccand, Head for Research and Analysis in the same directorate of the FDFA; Jean-BlaiseDefago, Personal Advisor to the Head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil protection and Sport (DDPS); and Adrian Bless, Deputy Head of Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

The Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager held a colloquium with the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich on Monday, September 24, 2012 where he spoke on “Perspectives on the Middle East” with a special reference to security issues and challenges. Dr. Roland Popp, Senior Researcher at the ETH commented on the presentation while Dr. Oliver Thraenert, Head of the Think Tank at the CSS moderated the discussion. Prior to the meeting, Dr. Sager also held discussions with Prof. Dr. Andreas Wenger, Director of the CSS on cooperation and upcoming collaboration. The CSS is a partner institution in the Think Tank Security Forum of the GRC. Dr. Koch, Director of the GRC Foundation is Geneva was present at both sessions.

Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, GRC Chairman, spoke at the conference “Impact and challenges for the Middle East and North Africa one year on from the Arab transitions” organized by Wilton Park in partnership with the NATO Defense College held from May 21 to 23, 2012. Dr. Sager’s presentation was entitled “A new balance of power inside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)?”