A meeting was scheduled with the second secretary of the Embassy of The State of Kuwait, Mr. Faisal Al Houli, and students of the International Institute of Linguistics and Law.

The meeting was to begin an hour after my arrival at the Embassy. My reason for being there was that I was commissioned to write an article about this meeting. Having had some experience in such events, I prepared myself to hear a long formal speeches from a foreign country's representative, full of the pomp and the glory of rhetoric. Afterwards: some questions from the audience, expressions of gratitude, and then the participants drift away.

However, to my surprise, from the very start these gloomy prospects dispersed in my mind when a smiling office-girl, (instead of some armed guards) met me and offered me a cup of strong Arabic coffee. As I tasted the exquisite Oriental taste, an extraordinary sense of anticipation surrounded me. Everything that followed was unlike the anticipated scenario.

When Mr. Faisal came, he greeted me and showed me to his office. I had not expected to have a personal conversation with anyone, let alone two such direct conversations. But Mr. Faisal amiably arranged for me to also have an interview directly with the Ambassador of Kuwait to Ukraine, Mr. Khaled M. Al-Duwailah.

Following is a transcript of my conversation with the Honorable Ambassador:

- Iraq is the only Kuwaiti counterpart. We have friendly relations with all other countries of the region.

- It stands to reason that currently Kuwait doesn't have diplomatic relations with Iraq. Many times and often we tried to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. We even signed treaties concerning borders with Iraq but Hussein always broke these agreements. Numerous attempts by the Iraqi army to intervene on Kuwait's territory frustrated all our peace initiatives. Hussein continues the policy of non-recognition of Kuwait and its borders and that's why there are no current talks. I want to highlight that our enemy is not the Iraqi people but Hussein's regime. We will resume normal contacts between our nations as soon as Hussein is ousted.

- Not at all, Iran has always been a friendly nation to us, and our relations with western countries cannot be an obstacle for regional cooperation.

- What can you say about developing relations with Ukraine?
- Kuwait established its embassy in Kyiv in 1993. By the way, we were the first in the Gulf region who established diplomatic relations with Ukraine.

- What particular interests do you have in Ukraine? What are the areas in which you would like to collaborate?
- It's very wide open question. It's difficult for me to point out some priorities. We are interested in everything. We have many things that we can propose to your country. Kuwait produces a great many goods that meet world standards.

- But I haven't seen any Kuwait goods in our shops and I haven't heard anything about active trade between your country and Ukraine. So there must be something hampering our trade relations.
- First of all I want emphasize the passive position on the Ukrainian side. Last year our countries signed a trade treaty that I personally took part in its preparation. The Kuwait parliament ratified it long ago, but the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada has not done so yet.

- What has prevented our parliament from doing this?
- To our knowledge the case is still with the cabinet and not yet presented to the parliament. The double taxation issue remains unsolved. Therefore Kuwaiti companies do not want to establish their branches in Ukraine. Ukrainian companies are not represented in Kuwait either. The situation won't change until the Ukrainian parliament adopts this treaty.

- Considering the current events our parliament is not likely to discuss this treaty in the short run.
- Of course.

- Were there any attempts to push this treaty through?
- We are constantly reminding Ukrainian side about it but there hasn't been any feedback.

- Do you have any plans to arrange for meetings for officials of our countries?
- Yes, we have in our agenda visits of high officials to Kuwait. We are only waiting for fixing dates.
- Is Kuwait interested in collaboration concerning energy and aircraft fields? Is it possible for Ukraine to sign an aircraft deal with your country as it did with Iran?
- All this needs to be discussed in details and many things depend on Ukraine's activity.

- I cannot leave out a topical issue concerning modern society, meaning Internet development . How is your country represented on the world wide web?
- You'd better ask Mr. Faisal about it.

Mr. Faisal on Kuwait and the World Wide Web

- I can't tell you how many Internet users or sites there are in Kuwait, but you can get this statistics from the site of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. We have few sites in Kuwait because of our small population, but I can assure you that everyone can afford to have a computer in our country. Our schools and high educational institutions are well equipped with modern machines.

- How many Internet providers are there in Kuwait?
- There are four or five major companies, the largest are Quality Net and Kems. Oil companies and banks also provide Internet connection themselves.

- Control over this global network is widely discussed now. How does Kuwait government manage to monitor Internet access?
- In our country we have succeeded to put some control on certain sites that could be harmful especially to the minors who have access to Internet sources for example porno sites. It was initiated by a private company which has contributed $1.5 million to purchase a special system which monitors site addresses. If an address contains words with a sexual context, then access to this site will be denied. A similar rule is also applied to e-mail messages. Messages with particular words and expressions will not be sent or received.

- Don't you consider these informational limitations a violation of human rights?
- Human rights? Do you think that allowing children to visit porno sites is a part of human rights?

- But there's also satellite television where you can watch porno.
- It's almost impossible to control satellite broadcasting so there are no limitations.

- Do you have Internet shops in Kuwait which are so popular all over the world?
- Yes, there are too many. We also have advanced Internet shopping and here I would like to bring to your attention that The National Bank of Kuwait has come up with special Internet card to protect its clients. A card that was unique but has encouraged Internet users.

Note: At this point we had to conclude our conversation about the Internet because the students from the International Institute of Linguistics and Law arrived. I was surprised that there were no Arabic speaking persons among them. They also refused to speak English so we used the Embassy's interpreter. Mr. Faisal was asked many questions concerning different areas. Following are several key topics:

Investments

- Kuwait became a rich country thanks to petroleum but some day it will be depleted. What will form the new basis for Kuwait's economy then?
- We are conscious of the fact that this natural resource will be exhausted and that's why Kuwait is implementing an active investment policy around the world. In the amount of investments in foreign countries, we can compete with US and Japan. Lucrative investment is the future of our economy. Furthermore, our government established "The Fund for Future Generations" and every year we place there a part of the state's revenues. When all petroleum is depleted this money could help our descendants to support an appropriate standard of living. This is a unique Kuwaiti practice. Other countries don't have such a fund.

- What are prospects for Kuwait-Ukraine cooperation in the oil area?
- Ukraine has two main critical issues: energy and finance, and it's difficult to say which of them is primary. Kuwait is ready to export it's petroleum to your country but firstly there are no refineries for Gulf oil in Ukraine and secondly it doesn't have enough financial resources to settle the payments. We don't accept barter which is widely practiced among CIS countries. Finance is likely to be Ukraine's primary issue. I want to mention as an instance a small Asian country Bhutan. Deprived of natural resources, it managed to concentrate its finances and built a power station and now it is exporting energy to neighboring India.

-Does Kuwait make investments in Ukraine?
- Not yet, first of all because Ukraine hasn't made any initiatives and projects to propose. Kuwait wills to invest in Ukraine like it did in many other parts of the world but the problem I see in that aspect is Ukraine's approach. You should not expect our investors to knock the door and tell you:" Here is my money, please, invest it." Therefore the initiative should be from Ukraine. Your country has given priority to Europe neglecting other parts. Ukraine could enter Europe through Kuwait.

Women rights

- Can women be high up in civil service in Kuwait?
- Yes, they can hold any position except as a deputy of parliament. We have many women serving as diplomats. Women's movement is well developed in Kuwait.

- Why do you have an exception for deputies?
- This is a historical casualty. When the Constitution of The State of Kuwait was written women simply were not mentioned so currently they cannot elect or be elected to the parliament unless the legislative body passes the amendment bill. Now the amendments to the Constitution are widely discussed and I think that this historical confusion will be solved.

Culture

- Does Kuwait feel the impact of American culture?
- There's no so called Americanization of our culture. These statements don't correspond to reality. The fact that we have close ties and relations with the United States, and that our people know English, and that there are 1.5 thousand American soldiers on our territory is not a reason to talk about Americanization of Kuwait. We have ancient Islamic traditions and unique culture which made Kuwait a prosperous country and no one is going to refuse these great inheritances. The negative image spread around about our societies by western countries which see the world only from their own point of view and they don't want to understand cultures which differ from their own. I hope that I managed today to dismiss your prejudice about our culture.