ABSTRACT
As the government of Great Britain announced in January 1968 the decision of withdrawing Pax-Britannica from the Gulf, the states in the region developed a sense of urgency for closer co-operation that would enable them to fill the gap potentially emerging in the wake of the British withdrawal. To this end, settlement of outstanding territorial and boundary differences became a necessity, especially in the offshore areas of the Gulf where exploration and exploitation of new oilfields was expanding rapidly.
