As Qatar Airway's latest flight route is launched - taking Qatar's National Airline to another destination in America - Qatar can reflect on its special relationship with the US.
Qatar has often partnered with a foreign country. Throughout history, Qatar was involved in numerous wars and feuds, from having its villages bombed by the Portuguese to seeing Doha and Al Wakra destroyed by Bahrain. Being a small country, alliances were essential for survival in the region.
Both the UK and Qatar saw the advantages of an alliance between the two countries, with Qatar becoming a protectorate of the UK in the early 20th century.
With an assertive Saudi Arabia on its border, the move made sense - and indeed shortly after Qatar's independence from the UK the strip of land connecting the UAE and Qatar was annexed by Saudi.
With the UK no longer protecting its borders, it made sense for Qatar to invite America into the country, and the base the US maintains in the country is of immense value to the state's security in a volatile region. In return, the US has secured a base in a region often hostile to American interests.
However, the relationship has gone beyond a military one.
Huge American investment has flowed into the country, and Qatar Natural Gas will turn America into the largest importer of LNG in the world.
And when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, it was Qatar which came running to help, supplying money, aid - and moral support.
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