The Economic page of the India Times of December 5, 2017 produced this unexpected piece of news from Kuwait City where an extraordinary gathering of all Gulf ministers held key talks before a forthcoming GCC summit. The UAE and Saudi Arabia announced that they are planning a new economic and partnership group. The UAE and Saudi Arabia new economic group will be outside of the GCC.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of six Gulf countries have nevertheless met in Kuwait City in one of the highest official encounters since a Saudi Arabia-led quartet of Arab countries severed relations with Qatar. Aside from that there is also talk that the Emir of Qatar will be present at the summit.
UAE, Saudi Arabia forming new group, separate from GCC
AP
KUWAIT CITY: The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday announced it has formed a new economic and partnership group with Saudi Arabia, separate from the Gulf Cooperation Council, a move that could undermine the council amid a diplomatic crisis with member state Qatar.
The Emirati Foreign Ministry announcement, just hours ahead of a GCC meeting in Kuwait, said the new “joint cooperation committee” was approved by the UAE’s ruler and president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayhan.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately report on the new partnership.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the development could affect the six-member GCC meeting, which is expected to focus on the Qatar issue. Half of the GCC members are boycotting Doha in a dispute that’s cleaved the Arabian Peninsula.
The Emirati ministry said the new “committee is assigned to cooperate and coordinate between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in all military, political, economic, trade and cultural fields, as well as others, in the interest of the two countries.”
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have cultivated even-closer ties in recent years. Emirati troops are deeply involved in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nayhan, also is believed to have a closer relationship with Saudi Arabia’s young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Emirati announcement did not say whether any other Gulf Arab countries would be invited to join the new group, but the development puts pressure the GCC, a group of American-allied Gulf Arab nations formed in part in 1981 as a counterbalance to Shiite power Iran.
The United States and its European allies all have told the council’s members that the region remains stronger with them working together as a whole, while the countries themselves still appear divided over their future.
Please read the whole story on the India Times.
