- ARAB NEWS
- 30 Apr 2024
Since 1975
The Gulf Cooperation Council played an outsized role in global affairs during 2023. Its economy has grown considerably to $2.3 trillion, more than a 12-fold increase in four decades, thus growing the revenues of its member states, firms and households to enable them to grow and engage more effectively with the global economy.
The GCC also expanded its reach during the year and diversified its strategic partnership portfolio to include major countries and organizations, especially from the Global South. For a long time after its founding in 1981, the organization was inward-looking, focusing on the internal integration between its member states. In 2008, during the global financial crisis, it decided to expand its external relations, starting from traditional relations with Europe and the US. From early 2020 to late 2022, COVID-19 and other factors made it difficult to continue outward expansion at the same pace.
As soon as the pandemic restrictions were relaxed, the GCC and China revived a proposal dating back to 2019. In December 2022, the GCC-China Summit, the first ever, was held in Riyadh. The summit sought to upgrade their mostly economic engagement, which goes back about two decades, to a “strategic partnership,” meaning that its scope will expand to include all areas of mutual interest, including closer security and political coordination. The leaders agreed on an ambitious five-year joint action plan and China, for the first time, took a public stand against some of Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region.
Their economic partnership strengthened during 2023, with China maintaining its position as the GCC’s top trading partner. Two-way merchandise trade exceeded $230 billion, accounting for more than 20 percent of total GCC trade. Thirty percent of China’s oil imports came from the GCC, as well as 10 percent of its gas. China was the destination of more than 25 percent of the GCC’s chemical and petrochemical exports. During the year, free trade negotiations came tantalizingly close to conclusion and two-way investments picked up following a slowdown during COVID-19.
In March, the decisions made at last December’s summit were put into action, as Beijing witnessed the signing of a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year rupture. China subsequently hosted follow-up meetings between the two countries to cement the new deal, generating a hopeful new spirit in the region.
In addition, during 2023, China and the GCC launched discussions about nuclear cooperation, focusing on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, nuclear security and the safety of nuclear installations. China offered unlimited support for training and capacity-building in these areas.
Strengthening ties with China was an important part of a larger drive toward strategic diversification. In July, the GCC held its first ever summit with the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) in Jeddah. In October, it held a similar summit in Riyadh with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In each summit, the heads of state and government agreed on a joint program to guide their engagement, including political and security dialogue, trade and investment, and people-to-people engagement, for the next several years.
In late September, the GCC foreign ministers met for the first time as a group with their counterparts in the 25-member Association of Caribbean States and agreed to a joint program that includes political dialogue, investment and tourism. The ministerial meeting was a prelude to a summit at the level of heads of state and government contemplated for 2024.
In November, Saudi Arabia hosted a summit in Riyadh with the Caribbean Community, another Caribbean-based organization, also a first.
At the same time as they were exploring these new partnerships, Saudi Arabia and its GCC sisters sought to shore up their traditional alliances. In May, Jeddah hosted the Arab Summit, where new grounds were broken in an attempt to resolve the 12-year-old conflict in Syria. After months of negotiations, Syrian President Assad was invited to return to the Arab League. This followed the striking of a deal in Amman on a step-for-a-step roadmap toward de-escalation, leading to a UN-mediated political solution according to UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
The GCC and the US continued to meet in different formats to discuss specific elements of their strategic partnership, which was announced in 2015 during Barack Obama’s presidency. GCC foreign ministers met with the US secretary of state in Riyadh and New York to coordinate political views on regional and international issues.
They agreed, for example, on the need to resume peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and also that the outcome of those talks should be two states along the 1967 borders and according to UN resolutions.
Strengthening ties with China was an important part of the GCC’s larger drive toward strategic diversification.
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg
In addition to these ministerial meetings, GCC-US specialized working groups also met and were reenergized, dealing with issues such as Iran, maritime security, missile and air defenses, counterterrorism and trade and investment.
In September, Saudi Arabia, the EU and the Arab League, supported by Egypt, Jordan and other GCC countries, launched a new initiative in New York to reenergize Middle East peace negotiations. This launch was followed in October by a GCC-EU meeting in Oman, where foreign ministers from member states of the two blocs reviewed progress on their strategic partnership, which had been announced in February 2022 in Brussels. The EU and GCC have maintained close contacts since the founding of the latter in 1981, as the EU has served as the most successful model for regional integration.
As the GCC-EU meeting in Muscat took place on Oct. 9, two days after the Hamas attack on Israel, that conflict dominated much of the talks. After heated and sustained discussions, the two groups agreed on a consensus that was cobbled together, miraculously considering the diversity of views on the issue within the EU. It was most likely a reflection of the newly established strategic partnership.
The new elements in the GCC-EU partnership include security cooperation, climate change mitigation and a deeper political engagement. The EU’s partnership in reviving the Middle East peace process is part of the new dynamic, as are advanced discussions on maritime security, cybersecurity, counterterrorism and fighting organized crime.
The war in Gaza has made it even more imperative for the GCC and EU to cooperate on several fronts — ceasefire, humanitarian issues and to pick up the pace on what they agreed upon in Muscat and New York, i.e., to find ways to reach a political solution for the war and the wider Palestine question. During the Muscat meeting, the ministers endorsed recommendations regarding aid coordination, which was very timely considering the growing needs in Gaza and the obstacles imposed by Israel on aid accessibility.
To deal with the repercussions of the war on Gaza, the GCC foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in
Oman on Oct. 17, when they laid out a common position on the war and on humanitarian assistance, pledging sizable amounts of new aid.
In November, Saudi Arabia convened an emergency joint meeting of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh, which was attended by the leaders of Arab and Islamic countries and which presented a unified voice on the war. The summit also laid down a comprehensive set of practical measures for Gaza, including additional aid and the documentation of breaches of international humanitarian law to present to the International Criminal Court.
Perhaps the most important measure adopted by the Arab-Islamic Summit was the formation of a ministerial committee — led by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and which also included ministers from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Palestine and Turkiye — to follow up the decisions of the summit on Gaza and the Palestine question. This committee has so far met all five UNSC permanent members and others, urging a ceasefire and improved humanitarian access.
The GCC states have also played an important role in mediating conflicts outside their immediate regions. Saudi Arabia, for example, has led the intra-Sudanese talks in Jeddah, together with the US, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union. While this platform has yet to produce a peace deal, it has contributed to de-escalation and helped prevent the conflict from spilling over to other countries.
The economic role of the GCC states is not only a function of their growing economies and thriving markets, but also of their role in stabilizing energy markets at a time of global turmoil and energy insecurity. The fact that Dubai hosted Expo 2020, Qatar is currently hosting the International Horticultural Expo and Saudi Arabia is going to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh is a sign of the international recognition of the growing economic and strategic roles these countries play.
In a greatly polarized world, the GCC states have managed to keep working with all sides. On the Russia-Ukraine war, GCC foreign ministers met, individually and collectively, with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Riyadh, Moscow, Kyiv, New York and elsewhere. The GCC side offered its help in mediating the conflict and succeeded in freeing some of the hostages and detainees held by the parties to the war. The GCC also argued repeatedly and strongly for continuing grain exports and preventing food shortages in developing countries that depend on those exports.
Similarly, when the US proposed the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, GCC members Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined the new venture, as they had earlier joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Healthy competition between superpowers could benefit the region and the cohabitation of the two initiatives could contribute to thwarting conflict.
The coming year is likely to present formidable political and security challenges for our region and beyond, but the GCC as an organization and its member states are poised to deal with those challenges effectively. By their actions, they present a model of the fruits of peace and stability that some of their neighbors could learn from, whether that is Israel or Iran, two countries that have chosen to live by the sword but have failed to achieve either peace or stability. By their readiness to engage and mediate with all parties, GCC states are able to lend a hand to these troubled lands.
