The Diplomatic Insight Magazine for December has now been published.
Editorial
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was the most talked about recent international event. Qatar has made its mark in sports diplomacy at the global scale by hosting such an outstanding event that will go down in history with its impact, branding, inclusive approach, and developmental goals.
The tournament, held after four years, has always remained the highlight of global attention and gripping the world as football has been the favorite game of 90 percent of the planet.
For the inauguration ceremony, dignitaries worldwide participate, and there is a star-studded event. This was the same for Qatar, as the country made its outstanding presentation at the inaugural event.
As the first country in the Arab world to host this important event, Qatar has made its mark by offering the inclusivity and projection of its culture, values, and insights with a blend of modernity.
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was held over 29 days at eight state-of-the-art stadiums, with the farthest distance between the two stadiums no more than 75 km. The compact nature of Qatar 2022 allowed fans and players to remain in one place of accommodation throughout the tournament, creating an authentic carnival experience.
It is estimated that over more than 1.4 million fans from across the world visited Qatar during the FIFA World Cup. With Argentina winning the world, more than 530,000 people attended the entertainment events daily throughout the tournament.
All eight of Qatar’s state-of-the-art stadiums are located within an hour’s journey time of central Doha and are easily accessible by metro, bus, and taxi services.
Qatar has delivered a groundbreaking edition of the tournament. As well as being the first FIFA World Cup in the region, Qatar 2022 is the most compact edition of modern history, allowing fans to attend more than one match daily.
It has also delivered numerous legacy programs related to human, social, economic and environmental projects. The World Cup also highlighted Qatar’s diplomatic intermediary position.
Before the tournament, President Biden referred to Qatar as a “major non-NATO ally,”. The American diplomats had started to count on it to conduct communications on several ongoing international conflicts.
It was an illustration of how sports and politics frequently intersect. Since the World Cup started on November 20, global dignitaries and leaders have flown to Qatar to watch the matches and have talks, occasionally directly on the sidelines.
Not only that, but because of the business and athletic success of the tournament in Qatar, the current FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, has made suggestions for hosting the world cup in 2025, but the decision regarding holding the World Cup after three instead of four years is yet to be made formally.
President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon was in Islamabad on an official visit at the invitation from the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The visit was considered an essential step toward building long-term strategic, diplomatic, political, and economic ties between the two countries. ‘Pakistan and Tajikistan pledged to increase their bilateral collaboration in energy, connectivity for trains and roads, commerce, investment, agriculture, and culture. To address energy demands, the two sides also promised to finish the much-anticipated Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1000) power project.
Global Business Alliance (GBA) arranged an important and successful business delegation to Azerbaijan, where significant entrepreneurial developments occurred. GBA is an international business and trade cooperation networking platform registered with the Government of Pakistan to promote global bilateral and multilateral trade, business, and services.
There were 19 members of the delegation from various Pakistani businesses. The entrepreneurs came from a wide range of backgrounds, while Azerbaijan’s embassy in Pakistan assisted in setting up lengthy meetings and trips to various locations. During the visit, Global Business Alliance conducted two major business conferences in collaboration with the Founders Club and Azpromo and signed three major agreements apart from establishing “The Azerbaijan-Pakistan Trade House”.
This trading house is a central planned joint framework for which conversations are underway. The objective of this visit was to interact with likely partners to reinforce and create robust business connections between the two countries. It is an effort to make the best use of the positive ties between the two Asian countries productively and developmentally.
