Kuwait marks on Monday the anniversary of its 58th Independence and its 28th Liberation Day as the country faces local and regional political tension given its significant geographic location.
The National Day commemorates the creation of Kuwait as a nation in 1961 while Liberation Day marks the end of the Iraqi occupation in 1991 during the Gulf War.
Monday also marks the 13th anniversary of Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s assumption to power.
In the past three years, Kuwait has been diplomatically active in alleviating regional tensions, including mediating to resolve the Gulf crisis and bolstering commercial ties with Iraq.
Kuwait backs a stable Iraqi regime and has been closely watching developments in the war on ISIS until its defeat.
Kuwait also seeks to resolve Qatar’s dispute with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. The four states insist that Doha abides by the text of the 2013 accord to resolve the crisis that erupted on June 5, 2017.
Internally, Kuwait succeeded in limiting the influence of extremist groups and confronting terrorism, but amid a drop in security challenges, the country began facing other main challenges such as corruption, which the government has pledged to fight.
At the end of Feb. 2018, Kuwait ranked 78 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, advancing by seven places compared to its 85 spot in 2017, Transparency International indicated in its CPI.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business-people, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
