It is not every day that an invitation arrives, requesting one’s presence at a dinner with a King! Amazingly, I got such an invitation and last week attended the King Hamad Award for Peaceful Coexistence dinner at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Security, as you can imagine, was tight but no different than it was when the Latvian Prime Minister last visited us. I must confess that I enjoy the excitement and historical significance of such contacts.
Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, now 73, as the King of Bahrain, has been a pivotal figure in the modern history of the nation. He ascended to the throne on March 6, 1999, succeeding his father, King Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.