Gulf Cooperation Council

• 1. Introduction

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  Six monarchies, one council, and a common currency that has been promised for years and has not arrived. That is the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional body that links Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Its formal Arabic name translates as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. It calls itself a political union, an economic union and a military alliance all at once. Since its creation, its membership has never expanded. Why did six rulers decide to tie their futures together? What have they actually built, and what has stalled? And what happens when the members themselves fall out with one another?

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• 2. Six Monarchies, One Charter

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  Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah of Kuwait pushed for closer cooperation among the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates supported him. Together they laid the groundwork for a council built on a shared hope for regional unity, security and economic integration.

  The charter was signed in Arabic in Abu Dhabi. On the Islamic calendar the date was the 21st of Rajab 1401, which matches the 25th of May 1981. An economic agreement followed in the same city on the 11th of November 1981. The six signatories remain the only members today, and people often call them simply the GCC states.

  The founding was not the first joint project. In 1976 the same six countries had created the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting, which is headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Yemen joined that organization in 2009.

  All six members are monarchies, but they are not the same kind. Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are constitutional monarchies. Saudi Arabia and Oman are absolute monarchies. The United Arab Emirates is a federal monarchy made up of seven member states, and each of those is an absolute monarchy with its own emir.

  The council's logo is made of two concentric circles. The upper part of the larger circle carries the Arabic phrase Bismillah, meaning in the name of God. The lower part carries the council's full name. Inside sits an embossed hexagon for the six countries, framing a map of the Arabian Peninsula in which the member territories are coloured brown, with no borders drawn between them.

  The first Secretary-General, Abdullah Bishara, took up his post on the 26th of May 1981, the day after the charter was signed.

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• 3. Governing Machinery

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  At the top of the council sits the Supreme Council, a gathering of the heads of state of all six members. Each state has one vote. Important questions need unanimous approval, while procedural matters need only a majority. The presidency rotates according to the Arabic alphabetical order of the members' names.

  Below it, the Ministerial Council brings together the foreign ministers every three months. It shapes policy and sends recommendations upward, and the Supreme Council can approve them. It also prepares the agenda for the leaders' meetings, and it votes by the same rules.

  The executive arm is the Secretariat General, which works from the council's main headquarters in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. It carries out decisions approved by the higher bodies. It also compiles studies on cooperation, coordination and planning, and now and then publishes reports on the council's work.

  Nayef Falah Mubarak Al Hajraf has led the Secretariat since the 1st of February 2020, with Abdulaziz Al Auwaishig and Khalifa Alfadhel as deputies. His predecessor, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, served from the 1st of April 2011 until the 31st of January 2020. Before him, Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Attiyah held the post from the 1st of April 2002 to the 31st of March 2011.

  Some of the council's institutions are surprisingly specific. The GCC Standardization Organization sets standards for the group, and Yemen is a member of it as well. The GCC Patent Office was approved in 1992 and set up soon afterward in Riyadh. Applications are filed and examined in Arabic, and a granted patent is valid in all member states. It is a separate office from the Saudi Arabian Patent Office. Its first patent was granted in 2002, and by 2013 it employed about 30 examiners.

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• 4. The Missing Currency

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  In 2001 the Supreme Council set a goal of a common currency by 2010. In December 2006 Oman announced that it could not meet that date. Then came a dispute over geography. The monetary union's central bank was to be located in Riyadh rather than in the United Arab Emirates, and a withdrawal from the project was announced in May 2009. The name Khaleeji has been proposed for the new money.

  The prize would have been large. Measured by the GDP of the area using the currency, the GCC union would be the second-largest supranational monetary union in the world, after the Eurozone.

  On the 15th of December 2009, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia announced a Monetary Council to deliver a single currency. A week earlier, on the 8th of December, Kuwaiti foreign minister Mohammad Sabah Al-Sabah had said the process could take up to ten years. The council's board met for the first time on the 30th of March 2010. Its job was to set a timetable and action plan for a central bank and to choose a currency regime.

  The UAE and Oman later stepped away, citing the 2008 financial crisis and political differences. In 2014 the four remaining members pressed ahead. Kuwait's finance minister said some "technical points" still needed to be cleared. He argued that "A common market and common central bank would also position the GCC as one entity that would have great influence on the international financial system". Talks with the UAE and Oman about rejoining were renewed.

  A kind of shared money already exists in practice. Businesses trade using a basket of GCC currencies, much as Europe used the European Currency Unit as a nominal common medium of exchange before the euro.

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• 5. Markets And Wealth

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  On the 1st of January 2008, a common market was launched to ease the movement of goods and services. Implementation then lagged after the 2008 financial crisis. A customs union, begun in 2003, was completed and fully operational by the 1st of January 2015.

  That same month the common market deepened. Citizens of any member state gained equal treatment to work in government and private jobs, to claim social insurance and retirement coverage, and to own real estate. Capital could move freely, and education, health and other social services became open to them across all six states. Barriers still remain. Taxation systems, accounting standards and civil legislation are being coordinated, and work continues on making professional qualifications, insurance certificates and identity documents interoperable.

  Behind these rules lies a great deal of money. The region has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, driven by oil and natural gas revenues and by a building and investment boom financed with decades of saved petroleum income. The UAE's investment arms, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, hold over US$900 billion in assets. Other regional funds manage several hundred billion dollars. The aim is to build a tax base and an economic foundation before the reserves run out.

  Gulf investors have also been active buyers. Since 1999, more than 5,200 mergers and acquisitions with a known value of 573 billion have been announced, with sovereign wealth funds among the investors.

  Sport has become part of the economic strategy. Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games and made an unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Qatar later hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The council also runs its own quadrennial GCC Games, first held in 2011, and the GCC Athletics Championships date back to 1986, with a youth section added in 2000.

  Beyond the region, the council has signed free trade agreements. The one with Singapore was signed on the 15th of December 2008 and took effect on the 1st of September 2013. The one with the European Free Trade Association was signed on the 22nd of June 2009 and took effect on the 1st of July 2014. A preliminary deal with Pakistan came in September 2023, and an agreement with the United Kingdom was signed on the 20th of May 2026.

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• 6. Grids, Rails And Skies

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  The GCC Interconnection Grid links the electricity networks of the member states. It began operating in 2009, and by 2013 all six members were connected. A water interconnection project has also been discussed, but as of January 2023 it had seen no notable development.

  The sky is a different story. Unlike the European Union, the members have not agreed to an open skies policy. Their airlines therefore lack unlimited market access to one another's countries and compete to capture international air traffic.

  The most ambitious scheme runs on steel. Oman's Minister of Transport and Communications said that over US$200 billion would be invested to develop about 40000 km of rail network across the GCC. Ramiz Al Assar, the Resident World Bank advisor for the GCC, described it as a regional transport corridor linking all six states. He said it would deepen economic, social and political integration and be developed from a sustainable perspective. The railways are also expected to boost trade between members and to cut fuel consumption.

  The rail project was estimated to be worth $15.5 billion and was scheduled to be completed by 2021. By May 2022 construction in the UAE and Saudi Arabia had progressed significantly, while the other members' efforts had lagged. Saudi Arabian Railways, Etihad Rail and their governments had invested 15 billion dollars by early 2015 to build networks for freight, city connections and shorter transport times.

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• 7. Security And Soldiers

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  In 2012, during the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia proposed turning the council into a "Gulf Union". The plan called for tighter economic, political and military coordination, a step widely read as a way to counterbalance Iranian influence. Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar backed the idea. Oman objected. In 2014, Bahraini prime minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said that events in the region showed how important the proposal was.

  The uprisings also produced a security pact. Since the Arab Spring, members have coordinated efforts to repress their domestic political opposition.

  The military arm is the Peninsula Shield Force, formed in 1984. Its most visible test came during the Bahraini uprising. Saudi Arabia and the UAE sent ground troops to Bahrain to protect vital infrastructure such as the airport and the highway system. Kuwait and Oman sent no troops, though Kuwait did send a navy unit.

  Beyond the peninsula, members acted together only in part. The Secretary-General strongly endorsed the use of international force in Libya, and member states joined the coalition enforcing a no-fly zone. In September 2014, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar began air operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. Jordan, then a pending member, joined them.

  The partners did not agree on everything in Syria. Saudi Arabia and the UAE oppose the Muslim Brotherhood there, while Qatar has historically supported it. Saudi Arabia also operated training facilities for Syrian rebels, and members allowed other countries fighting ISIL to use their airbases. Some GCC countries also send troops to fight the opposition government in Yemen.

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• 8. Rifts And Outsiders

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  In March 2014, a meeting of the council became the stage for an open quarrel. Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood across the region, for Hamas and for radical Islamists in Libya had raised tensions with its neighbours. After the meeting, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors to Qatar. Some financial economists read the rift as a sign of rivalry between oil and natural gas producers, with "deep and long-lasting consequences".

  A far larger break came on the 5th of June 2017. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia accused it of embracing terrorist and sectarian groups, naming the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, ISIL and Iran-supported groups in Qatif in its eastern province. Qataris and their businesses were banned from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, unless they had a spouse living there, and then a visa was required. Qatar Airways aircraft were barred from flying over these countries. Saudi Arabia said it would turn its land border with Qatar into a canal, known as the Salwa Canal, in 2018. The plan was abandoned in 2019.

  On the 4th of January 2021, Kuwait National TV announced that Saudi Arabia would restore diplomatic ties, reopen its airspace to Qatari aircraft and reopen the land border. The agreement was made official at the Al-Ula summit, ending the rift after three years and seven months.

  The door to new members has stayed shut, but several countries have tried the handle. Jordan's request to join, first submitted 15 years earlier, was accepted in May 2011, and Morocco was invited. A five-year economic plan for both followed in September 2011, though no accession timetable was set. Morocco's foreign minister Taieb Fassi Fihri noted that "geographical distance is no obstacle to a strong relationship".

  Iraq is the only Arab country bordering the Persian Gulf that is not a member. Its associate membership in certain GCC-related institutions was cancelled after the invasion of Kuwait. In 2012 former Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said Iraq wanted to join, and Kuwait supported that, but no progress has been made. Yemen negotiated for membership and hoped to join by 2016. In 2011 Bahrain's Foreign Minister called for Egypt to be admitted. At the Manama summit in December 2012, the members called on Iran to end its interference in their internal affairs.

  The council's partnerships now reach well beyond the Arab world. On the 16th of October 2024, the first summit between the GCC and the European Union was held in Brussels. Charles Michel and the rotating GCC president, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, co-chaired it under the theme "Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity".

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