About a week after Gantz’s visit: The official Bahraini news agency confirmed during the night (Friday to Saturday) that an Israeli officer will be stationed in its territory, as part of a coalition work involving more than 34 countries. In Bahrain we noted that the goals of the coalition include ensuring freedom of navigation in the region, protecting international trade and dealing with pirates and terrorism.
As you may recall, the Secretary of Defense visited the country about a week ago, about a year after the signing of the “Abraham Agreements” in Washington, D.C., and signed a security-historic memorandum of understanding. The signing took place between Minister Ganz and his Bahraini counterpart. This is the first open visit by an Israeli defense minister to the Gulf. In Israel, it was estimated that the signing with the first Gulf state is a first swallow and that there is a high chance in the near future of signing additional security cooperation agreements in the Gulf.
The signing of the agreement will make it possible to deepen security ties and cooperation. As part of the agreement itself, which will be signed in Bahrain, the areas of cooperation will in fact be determined and a joint steering committee will be established between the countries, which will deal with deepening security cooperation in the fields of military research and development.