NATO announces support for the security of the World Cup in Qatar

NATO will support security measures in Qatar during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which is expected to attract more than a million fans.

In a statement published this Thursday on the official website of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it is specified that this support, “as part of the close cooperation” between both parties, “will include training against the threats posed by chemical, biological, radiological materials and nuclear (CBRN)”.

This training will be delivered by Slovakia and NATO’s Joint CBRN Defense Center of Excellence in the Czech Republic.

The assistance of the military alliance will also include training for the protection of Very Important Persons (VIPs) and to counter the threats posed by improvised explosive devices, which will be offered by Romania.

A first training session on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats was held in Slovakia last May.

“The State of Qatar is a committed partner of NATO and has been actively engaged with the Atlantic Alliance for many years,” the 30-member-nation organization said in a statement.

Last March, the United States officially designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally.

This Wednesday the organizers of the World Cup with 32 countries and the first to be hosted by an Arab country, announced that more than 1.2 million tickets have been sold.

Ticket sales are made through a random selection draw. Its most recent phase closed at the end of April and according to FIFA it had 23.5 million applications.

Most of the requests were registered from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Mexico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

In total, there will be 2 million tickets available during the 28 days the tournament will last, between November 21 and December 18, according to local authorities.

A month ago Qatar hosted a two-day security conference before the World Cup called “The Last Mile.”

Among the attendees were security representatives from each qualified nation and from those that at that time had pending qualification, and from other relevant organizations such as Interpol, the United Nations or the FIFA Security and Protection Operations Committee together with the authorities Qataris.

FIFA has assured that Qatar has spared no effort to build comprehensive international cooperation and is confident that it will make “a safe tournament.”

The announcement of the presence of NATO in the World Cup was announced in the run-up to the NATO Summit in Madrid next week with the participation of delegations from 40 countries and more than 5,000 people, including which are some of the world’s top leaders.