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Qatar begins shipping cargo via Oman
DOHA—QatarsaidonMonday that it had begun shipping cargo through Oman to bypass Gulf countries that have cut off sea routes to the tiny, energyrich nation, its latest move to show it can survive a diplomatic dispute with its neighbors.
Qatar’s port authority published video showing a container ship loaded down with cargo arriving at Doha’s Hamad Port from Oman’s port of Sohar to a water-cannon welcome.
Typically, cargo for Qatar stops at Dubai’s massive deepwater Jebel Ali port or in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, then gets put on smaller boats heading to Doha. But since June 5, the United Arab Emirates has joined Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt in cutting off sea traffic to Qatar as part of the nations severing diplomatic ties over Qatar’s alleged support of extremists groups.
Qatar’s port authority said its cargo will go through Jalil Eslami, Sohar, as well as Oman’s port at Salalah, bypassing the need to dock in any of those countries that have cut ties. Global shipper Maersk already has said it will begin using Salalah for its shipments to Qatar.
Oman, not among those countries cutting ties to Qatar, routinelyservesasanegotiator for Western governments needing to speak to Teheran.
Iran’s southern ports in the Persian Gulf are all prepared to send goods to Qatar, deputy head of the country’s Ports and Maritime Organization, Jalil Eslami, said on Sunday. “We are ready to load and send the materials and goods needed by the Qataris from the ports in southern Iran,” Eslami said, adding that a consignment of commodities has already been sentfromIran’sBushehrportto Qatar at the demand of Doha.
The diplomatic crisis, the worst since the 1990, has seen Arab nations and others cut ties to Qatar, which hosts a major US military base.
Doha is a major international travel hub, but flagship carrier Qatar Airways now flies increasingly over Iran and Turkey after being blocked elsewhere in the Middle East.
After an initial run on supermarketsbypanickedresidents, Qatar has secured dairy products from Turkey. Iran also has shipped in vegetables by air and plans to send some 350 tons of fruit by sea to Qatar, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field.
Meanwhile, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have showed signals of easing tensions with Qatar. On Sunday, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Bin Saud both directed that lenience should be shown for QatariEmirati and Qatari-Saudi familiesonhumanitariangrounds.
Also on Sunday, Kuwait said Qatar was ready to listen to the concerns of Gulf Arab states that have severed diplomatic and economic ties with it, Saudi daily Arab News reported.
TOKYO — Defense firms put out their wares on Monday at Japan’s only dedicated arms show, a site for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to promote industrial military ties that will bolster the country’s influence in Southeast Asia.
The Defense Ministry has invited Southeast Asian military representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to a separate military technology seminar, aiming to ensure attendance for the Maritime Air Systems and Technologies Asia show near Tokyo, two sources said.
“The ministry is hosting the seminar right after MAST closes,” said one of the sources.
Abe’s government wants to make arms sales and military technology collaborationanewplankofJapanese diplomacy in Southeast Asia, as about $5 trillion in ship-borne tradepassestheSouthChina Sea each year, much of it to and from Japan.
In2014,Abeendedadecades-old arms export ban, partly to cut procurement costs by widening arms production, but also, for the first time since World War II, to allow Japan to offer arms technology as a lure for closer military ties.
The small Southeast Asianarmsmarketisgrowing as economic growth boosts military spending.
We are ready to load and send the materials and goods needed by the Qataris from the ports in southern Iran.” deputy head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization
Less reluctant
In their first outing at MAST Asia in 2015, Japanese firms were still reluctant to advertise their defense work to a public wary of any return to militarism. Only NEC Corp exhibited alone, with other firms clustering together in a single display.
That hesitation seems to haveeased.Atleast16Japanese companies are exhibiting alone, from leading arms maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to the maker of the sub-hunting P-1 patrol jet, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and ShinMaywa Industries, which builds the US-2 amphibious plane.
“We intend to showcase our wide range of products and technologies to event participants,” Mitsubishi Heavy said.
Showcased items include a guided missile destroyer display, a prototype amphibious vehicle model, minehunting technology and demonstrations of a laser radar surveillance system.
The three-day show will include overseas exhibitors, such as F-35 stealth fighter maker Lockheed Martin Corp and France’s Thales SA, and will have double the floor space of the 2015 event.