ABSTRACT
In December 2017 Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formed, outside the scope of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a ‘joint cooperation committee’, with a focus on economic, political, military, trade and cultural partnership. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE suspended diplomatic relations with Qatar from mid-2017–January 2021. An extraordinary summit of GCC heads of state was held in May to discuss the initiative, which, at that time, was most strongly supported by the Governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. A Gulf Council Interconnection Authority was established in 1999, with its headquarters in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to administer a plan to integrate the electricity, transportation and communications infrastructure of the six member states, an objective reiterated in the 2001 Economic Agreement. A permanent committee on fisheries aims to co-ordinate national fisheries policies, to establish designated fishing periods and to undertake surveys of the fishing potential in the Arabian Gulf.
