Improved US-Qatar relations

Qatari and US relations are improving. At the launch of a US-Qatar Economic and Investment Dialogue in Washington in October, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said the partnership with Qatar was ”absolutely essential and fundamental” to American strategy in the region.

“The US and Qatar are partners economically just as we are in the security sphere,” said Blinken, adding that Qatar plays an outsized diplomatic and strategic role and is a “very significant” source of foreign capital.

He was speaking after the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), one of the world’s most aggressive sovereign wealth funds, announced it pledged to invest $35 billion (Dh128.55 billion) in the US over the next five years.

“The Qataris are trying to tell the Americans ‘look our relationship is about more than just politics’ it’s holistic it involves other sectors, this investment is to compensate for any political rifts or disagreements with the Americans.’”

Those strains have included disagreements with Washington over the Qatari approach to conflicts like Libya and Syria.