Gulf Cooperation Council

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) refers to an economic and political alliance of six countries in the Middle East, namely- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It aims to achieve unity between its members per their common goals and the same Islamic Arabian cultural and political identities.

The council has the provision of a rotating presidency. Article 4 is the critical article of the GCC charter as it advocates and calls for promoting cooperation between member nation's citizens. It has been vital in international and regional geopolitical economic and political relations.

Gulf Cooperation Council represents a political and economic cooperation framework of six Arab Gulf States formed to tackle the challenges arising out of surrounding situations. It came into existence because of the GCC members' close proximity and having a similar regulation and social and economic conditions. It is officially known as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. It was established in May 1981, with its headquarters in Riyadh. It had its first meeting in Abu Dhabi in May 1981. 

Since then, yearly summits have been organized. It has the following objectives:

• To achieve oneness amongst GCC members in every field through interconnection, integration, and coordination.
• To strengthen and deepen ties, fields of cooperation and relations exist between their people in all fields.
• To create the same regulations in all fields of the member states, like administrative and Legislative affairs, tourism and information, health and social affairs, culture and education, communications, customs, commerce, financial and economic affairs.
• To trigger technological and scientific progress across fields like animal resources, industry, agriculture and mining while setting scientific research joint ventures and promoting cooperation with the private sector for the welfare of the people.

Its structure contains a multi-member organization having a supreme council, ministerial council, and secretariat general. The supreme council has the highest level of authority, consisting of a rotational presidency and routine sessions. The ministerial council comprises foreign ministers of member states meeting in three months. Finally, the secretary general has its head office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

GCC's history could be understood chronologically as follows:

• On 11 November 1981, the Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council were signed in UAE's Abu Dhabi, laying the foundation stone of GCC.
• In 1988, GCC established a bilateral relationship with the European Union through an agreement of cooperation comprising commitments to bargain provisions for free trade.
• In 1992, the GCC patent office was set up in Riyadh after due approval, increasing regional intellectual property rights.
• In 2003, a customs union was formed to aid economic regional integration as per the GCC declaration.
• July 2004 saw the beginning of bargaining for free trade negotiations to strengthen economic ties between China and GCC.
• On 31 October, GCC and New Zealand successfully concluded the negotiations concerning free trade agreements after six intense cycles of meetings.
• On 15 December 2009, the Monetary Council was created in the direction of having shared currency by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. 
• On 10 May 2011, GCC members invite Jordan & Morocco to join the council to expand the potential memberships.

It performs several key functions for the betterment of Arab nations, as given below:

• It formulates and recommends policies for encouraging cooperation amongst member states.
• It settles all disputes arising out of a misinterpretation of the GCC charter.
• It aims at achieving economic integration through trade barrier removal and economic policy coordination.
• It also promotes and advocates cooperation and unity using joint developmental projects.
• It helps members engage in defense and security cooperation.
• It handles regional diplomacy and regional affairs in the members' best interest.
• Most importantly, it oversees the implementation of the objective and provisions of its charter towards enhanced cultural, security, and socioeconomic cooperation between member countries.

GCC stands for an economic and political alliance of 6 Middle Eastern Arabian countries, namely the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the State of Qatar, and the State of Kuwait. 

Let us know about the importance of GCC as listed below:

• It plays a vital role in building regional economic cooperation and integration.
• It increases the bargaining power of the member states with the rest of the world.
• GCC increases security ties and political strength between member states.
• It facilitates initiatives concerning sustainable growth and the development of joint projects.
• It has become an essential element in the stability of the Gulf region. 
• It promotes trade and investment opportunities amongst member nations.
• Finally, it offers a platform for collaboration and dialogue on regional problems.