On the afternoon of March 10 2022, U.S. President Biden issued a statement officially confirming that Qatar is a “non-NATO major ally” of the United States, which will enhance the partnership between the United States and Qatar.
According to a report by Al Jazeera TV on March 10, Qatar has thus become the third country in the Gulf region to acquire the status of a non-NATO major ally after Kuwait and Bahrain. Biden’s move is very different from his predecessor Trump, who once accused Qatar of “prolong-term financing of terrorism”.
On January 31 this year, Biden made relevant commitments to Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, at the White House. Biden said at that time that the United States “should have done so long ago”.
The United States and the United States and the United States have maintained close relations all year round and maintain cooperation on a range of issues. Qatar played an important role in the peaceful mediation between the United States and the Afghan Taliban, which eventually led to the withdrawal of NATO forces led by the United States from Afghanistan after 20 years. After the Taliban took back to Afghanistan last August, the United States and Pakistan also jointly assisted Afghan refugees to withdraw from the country.
The U.S. statement on March 10 coincided with global worries about rising energy prices and energy supply prospects after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The United States announced on the 8th that it would impose an energy embargo on Russia, and the European Union, which supplies a large amount of natural gas from Russia, also promised to significantly reduce its dependence on Russia by the end of this year. Qatar is one of the largest producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world.
According to a report by the Turkish Radio and Television Company (TRT) on March 11, Colombia, together with Qatar, obtained the status of a major non-NATO ally of the United States on March 10. The main non-NATO allies are the positioning given by the U.S. government as allies that do not belong to NATO but have strategic cooperation with the U.S. military. After confirming this status, these countries will be able to receive military and financial support from the United States only for their NATO allies, and purchase weapons and military equipment made by the United States. But unlike NATO members, the United States does not provide military protection to these countries.
So far, the United States has granted such status to about 15 countries.
