Many describe Oman’s foreign policy as representative of the country’s soft power characteristic of its hospitable culture and tolerance towards everyone.
Over the past decades, the country's foreign policy has been able to achieve many goals, because of the insightful vision that characterizes it in international relations, premised on the advocacy of peace and reconciliation, as opposed to force, oppression and coercion, in the achievement of national interests. Such policies fall within the framework of the soft power that many countries of the world seek to achieve.
As is well known, the distinguishing feature of soft power is that it is not coercive. Rather, it means the opposite of using hard power against others, whether in international politics or economic fields, such as economic sanctions or boycotts. This is indicated by the researcher Joseph Nye of Harvard University in his book "Binding to Leadership” in 1990.
Soft power includes cultural, religious, political, social, sports, foreign policies – factors that eschew the use of war and coercion to achieve certain goals.
What we would like to present here today are the statements made by some senior officials of the Sultanate of Oman, such as Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Qais al-Yousef, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, that attest to Oman’s soft power. The statement refer to Oman’s experience in attracting dozens of athletes to a golf tournament organized by the Oman Golf Association in Muscat recently.
Oman used golf as a vehicle to attract dozens of players from Europe to organize the exceptional tournament. The event was also an opportunity to showcase Oman’s investment and commercial potential. The Minister of Foreign Affairs believes that this event worked to link the Italian and European athletes with the Omanis, stressing the nation’s keenness to host such events to explore opportunities for partnerships and exchange with everyone in the world.
This message was echoed by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion who referred to the appeal of golf to promote Oman as an attractive destination for investment.
In the world of sports and other investment fields, we find tourism, sports, hospitality and culture are welcomed as elements of soft power in today's world.
The Sultanate of Oman is indeed a land of peace, tolerance, neutrality and hospitality. All of these principles are compatible with the spirit of sport that unites the world. Together with its distinctive tourism potential, and promising investment and business opportunities, Oman has use elements of its soft power to expand its political and economic relations.
This is what we must focus on in the coming years by exploiting the elements of soft power in attracting investments, commercial and industrial projects that we look forward to in order to diversify the sources of income as part of Oman Vision 2040.
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