A papal embassy in Kuwait very soon
Kuwait-Vatican, Politics, 2/11/2000

The Catholic Church in Kuwait said on Thursday that a papal embassy will be opened in Kuwait which has had diplomatic relations with the state of Vatican since 1968.

Temporarily the papal nuncio will stay at the church's premises and will be a representative of the Vatican for the whole Arab Peninsula. This is the first time the papal nuncio to the region is residing in Kuwait.

On Wednesday the Kuwaiti minister of state for foreign affairs, Suleiman Majid al-Shahin, received a message from the secretary of the relations with state department at the Vatican. The message was conveyed by the Vatican's embassy charge de affairs in Kuwait, Jeioseibi De Andrea, who was an official at the central bureau for work at the Vatican.

On Thursday and before he headed from Bahrain and then to Yemen to hand over similar messages to the governments of the two countries, De Andrea added that he had given al-Shahin his credentials to be "the first representative for the Vatican in the Arab Peninsula, residing in Kuwait." He continued, "I will return on Wednesday from my tour which will cover Bahrain and Yemen." He indicated that the Vatican chose Kuwait to establish a representative for its in the region due to the fact that Kuwait is the first Gulf sate which had diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Relations between Kuwait and the Vatican witnessed notable development following the meeting between Kuwaiti Crown Prince and Prime Minister Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah with Pope John Paul II on November 13, 1996. The Pope had repeatedly met with Kuwaiti Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh Salem al-Sabah.

The Vatican's foreign minister, Jean-Louis Tauran, visited Kuwait on November 21, 1996, carrying a message from the Pope to the ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad, and discussed with Kuwaiti officials the establishment of the embassy for the Vatican.

Taking Kuwait as the headquarters for its representative to the Gulf region by the Vatican is considered the second important event in the area of Christian conditions in Kuwait. The first event was the investiture of the Kuwaiti Amanuel al-Gharib as an Anglican reverend to become the first Arab Gulf man of religion and appoincing Church in Kuwait.

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