Presided by His Excellency the Secretary-General of the League of the Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the regular 52nd session of the Higher Coordination Committee hosted by NAUSS in Riyadh starts on Wednesday 26 January 2022. The session continues for three days upon the Committee's recommendations issued by the 51st session.
His Excellency the President of NAUSS Dr. Abdulmajeed bin Abdullah Albanyan delivers a speech in the beginning of the session meetings. He conveys the greetings of His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior and the Chairperson of NAUSS's Supreme Council, and His wishes of success for the session meetings. He also thanks His Excellency the Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and all participants for giving NAUSS the honor to host the session meetings.
The President of NAUSS stresses that the University, the scientific body of the AIMC, has made great efforts for strengthening the joint Arab action by launching qualitative initiatives that include:
- An annual work program including topics selected based on the recommendations of the Arab plans and strategies.
- Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz's Grant Program for postgraduate studies that has offered benefits for hundreds of students occupying leadership positions in their countries.
Moreover, NAUSS has enriched the specialized Arab library with 700 peer-reviewed scientific publications in various security specializations and tens of security studies for supporting the decision-making. All researchers may freely access such publications and studies from NAUSS's website.
Dr. Albanyan indicates that NAUSS has launched a qualitative initiative for translating security books from foreign languages to the Arabic. Accordingly, the Arab experts may benefit from the quality and modernity of such books' content. He also reveals that NAUSS is cooperating with the international organizations and institutions by implementing tens of scientific and training activities.
The President of NAUSS concludes his speech by expressing his deep thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince His Royal Highness Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for the material and moral support provided by the KSA to NAUSS. He also appreciates the generous sponsorship and regular follow-up offered by His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior, the honorary president of AIMC, and the Chairperson of NAUSS's Supreme Council, and sustained by His brothers their highnesses and excellencies the Arab interior ministers.
Subsequently, His Excellency the Secretary-General of the League of the Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit delivers a speech. He expresses his pleasure to attend the Committee meetings held at NAUSS. The Secretary-General indicates that NAUSS is a great Arab academic body located in Riyadh. He says, “NAUSS has realized valuable achievements thanks to its efforts and determination to make developments. It is one of the Arab expertise houses and the scientific organ that supports the joint Arab action in its security specializations".
His Excellency Aboul Gheit adds, “I'd like to express in the name of the League of the Arab States our appreciation and gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its continuous support to the League and to the League's institutions which include NAUSS, the prestigious University that receives a Saudi generous sponsorship for implementing its activities". He also praises the unprecedented projects, initiatives, and reforms conducted by the Kingdom according to a penetrating vision highlighting its prestige on the regional and international levels.
H.E the Secretary-General reviews in his speech the topics related to the digital transformation in the Arab region. He calls to prepare Arab strategies in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and other digitization fields.
The Secretary-General affirms that the last decade has witnessed an astonishing development in the scientific research on the artificial intelligence. A recent report prepared by the American Stanford University in cooperation with NASA and Microsoft Corporation has indicated that the number of scientific and specialized periodicals and publications on the artificial intelligence has duplicated by more than 6 times in the last five years. Such number is still increasing because the countries, corporations, and military institutions pay their attention to make huge investments for benefitting from the exceptional capabilities of the artificial intelligence technology. The Secretary-General commends the Arab countries that launched artificial intelligence strategies and wishes to see other Arab countries taking similar procedures.
HE the Secretary-General concludes his speech by stressing that the partnerships between the institutions of the Arab joint action must be encouraged for launching joint initiatives and projects.
It is worth mentioning that the Committee meeting discusses many topics that include:
- Following-up the previous findings of the 51st session presented by the Committee.
- Discussing a paper on digital transformation and capacity-building for promoting the artificial intelligence technique on the Arab level.
- The Arab interaction for encountering the digital dominance.
- The climate change and its effect on the economic and social development in the region.
- The General Secretary's report on the Glasgow summit on the climate change.
- Other topics that are important for the Arabs.
The Committee's meetings are held for three days and include meetings for experts.