KUWAIT: Reconnaissance Research conducted an interview recently with Daniel Benaim, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the US Department of State. Founder and CEO of Reconnaissance Research Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri conducted the interview. Benaim is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Near East Bureau at the US Department of State. He is a former Middle East policy advisor to President Biden, he has worked at the White House, State Department, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is a lifetime member and former International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri: How important are human rights and freedoms of expression to the US administration in our region?

Daniel Benaim: President Biden and Secretary Blinken have committed to elevating the role of human rights in our foreign policy, especially with our partners that we care deeply about, such as Kuwait. We clearly seek to support and strengthen the role of democratic institutions, and to show the importance of active civil political participation. We support enabling citizens to contribute to the civil life of their countries in order to achieve prosperity and security. We have seen areas of remarkable progress in the region and areas where significant work still lies ahead.

Anjeri: How can the United States apply these principles?

Benaim: I want to underscore that we discuss human rights with our partners against the backdrop of incredibly close, deep, and wide-ranging partnerships that span from traditional security cooperation to COVID and climate change to higher education. Our partnerships in the Gulf are enduringly important to the United States, including in Kuwait, where Secretary Blinken made his first visit to the region in July 2021. In my own travels to the region as a US official, I have had the chance to meet with many civilians and influencers in civil society and people who have traveled to the United States as part of our exchange programs. In every society in this region, there are remarkably talented people working to solve the problems they have identified in their communities. We are proud to support efforts by both governments and private citizens to find the best solutions.

In Kuwait, in addition to every society in this region, we find individuals who are remarkably talented in evaluating and diagnosing problems and helping us in suggesting appropriate solutions to them, and we find them keen to solve the problems of their societies. We are proud to support these people and open more channels of communication with them, as their participation in improving their countries is an important role that should not be left solely to governments only, people are an essential partner in determining the shape and mechanism of their future as well.

Supporting freedom of expression worldwide is a key priority for the United States. Our efforts have included supporting those advocating for the rights of women, girls, and all people, and we have pressed for the release and lifting of restrictions on women’s rights activists.

Obstacles to reforms

Anjeri: What are the obstacles that the United States faces in the region that hinder its vision of further reforms?

Benaim: The United States makes common cause with a wide range of partners with different political systems, as we always have. Our commitment to democratic norms and human rights begins at home - where it is a source of national pride and strength - and it remains a vital part of our engagement in the world.

The United States will speak up for our values, and we also work to build closer, stronger relationships with our partners - and where possible to align our bilateral relationships with our values and interests. That work can be incremental and challenging. As governments and citizens in this region work to move their societies and institutions forward, our hope is that our engagement creates opportunities for progress, cooperation, and positive change.

Anjeri: Are there shifting dynamics in US foreign policy?

Benaim: Regional dynamics are ever-changing, but it is equally important to look at what is not changing; the United States remains a close strategic partner to Kuwait and to the GCC. We have enjoyed strong strategic, diplomatic, economic, and people-to-people ties for many decades and look forward to continuing to strengthen them.

As threats and conditions have changed in the region, we have always adapted together as partners. An excellent recent example is the Gulf states’ close coordination on Afghanistan and their indispensable support in facilitating the transit of US citizens, Embassy Kabul personnel, Afghans, and other evacuees from Afghanistan. The Gulf states’ have been at the forefront of our efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan to safety. We are deepening our cooperation not only on counterterrorism, defense, and oil but also on clean energy, climate change, and COVID.

The United States has enduring strategic interests that will keep us engaged in this region for decades to come, including ensuring the freedom of maritime navigation and the flow of energy into the global economy; counterterrorism; preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; helping our partners to defend themselves; and encouraging positive changes across the region to help societies prepare for the immense challenges that lay ahead, challenges which often will not respect national or even regional boundaries.

The United States and the GCC countries have an unprecedented opportunity to work together to heal old rifts within the region and create new accords. We’ve seen concrete examples of progress already like the end of the Gulf rift earlier this year, as well as improved relations between the GCC and Turkey. We respect each country’s sovereignty and expect them to make decisions based on their own interests.

Anjeri: Will attention shift from the Gulf to the Indo-Pacific and China?

Benaim: Regarding efforts by China to expand its cooperation in the region, as the Secretary has said time and time again, our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be. We recognize that our allies and partners have complex relationships with China, which will not always align with our own. Our focus has been on closing the gaps in areas like technology and infrastructure, which we have seen China exploit to exert coercive pressure. We will rely on innovation and competition in these areas.

We are in close coordination with Kuwait on many of the issues I have highlighted. The United States, Kuwait, and other Gulf countries continue to consult closely on Iran and a return to the JCPOA. Most recently, senior US officials and members of the GCC convened a working group on Iran at the GCC’s headquarters on November 17 and issued a Joint Statement on their shared views on this issue.

Similarly, the United States and Kuwait are partners in efforts to combat the climate crisis - for example, we both joined the Global Methane Pledge. We will continue to deepen our partnership on the issues we’ve worked on together for many years. And we will broaden our partnership to new fields of endeavor because we want to be active together wherever we can deliver greater security, prosperity, and wellbeing for people in Kuwait, the United States, and around the world.