The Chief of Staff the Qatari Armed Forces Major General Pilot Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem met on Tuesday with Operational Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland Lt General Marek Tomaszycki, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
During the meetings, they exchanged views on matters of common interest between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Poland and ways of enhancing them.
Major General Pilot Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem also met with non-resident Korean Military Attaché to Qatar Kim Pyung neon.
He also met with Italian Military Attaché to Qatar Colonel Aldo Zizzo on the occasion of ending her tenure in Doha.
During the meetings, they reviewed topics of common interest in the military fields between the State of Qatar and all of the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Italy.
The Qatar Armed Forces are the military forces of Qatar. The country maintains a modest military force of approximately 11,800 men, including an Army (8,500), Navy (1,800) and Air Force (1,500).
Qatar’s defense expenditures were a total of $1.913 billion, about 1.5% of the national GDP, as of 2010 according to SIPRI.
Qatar has recently signed defense pacts with the United States in 2002 and 2013 and with the United Kingdom, as well as with France earlier, in 1994.
Qatar plays an active role in the collective defense efforts of the Gulf Cooperation Council; the other five members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, and Oman.
The presence of a large American military base in the country provides the country with a guaranteed source of defense and national security.
SIPRI states that Qatar’s plans to transform and significantly enlarge its armed forces have accelerated in 2014, and in 2010-14 Qatar was the 46th largest arms importer in the world. Orders in 2013 for 62 tanks and 24 self-propelled guns from Germany were followed in 2014 by a number of other contracts, including 24 combat helicopters and 3 AEW aircraft from the USA, and 2 tanker aircraft from Spain.
Qatar also signed major arms deals during and after DIMDEX 2015 all of which were fully highlighted on Al Defaiya Website: www.defaiya.com
