Шесть стран Персидского залива объявили о создании общего рынка
1 января шесть стран — членов Совета сотрудничества арабских государств Персидского залива (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, GCC) объявили о создании собственного общего рынка. Об этом заявил Генеральный секретарь GCC Абдулрахама аль-Аттия (Abdulraham al-Attiyah).
Вместе с тем, многие аналитики считают, что лишь немногие из преимуществ общего рынка стран GCC станут реальностью в 2008 году, хотя 1 января можно рассматривать как «точку отсчёта» последующей интеграции. «Нет сомнений, что в 2008 году мы будем только в начале долгого процесса, а не в начале полноценного общего рынка, — отметил Экарт Воертц (Eckart Woertz), ведущий экономист Научно-исследовательского центра стран Персидского залива (Gulf Research Center). — Реализации основных законов и нормативных рамок, необходимых для интеграции экономик государств-членов, ещё не произошло. Хотя GCC уже достигла консенсуса в отношении огромного числа законов, их фактическая реализация на национальном уровне все ещё отстаёт, а подробные спецификации и единая нормативная база отсутствуют во многих случаях».
В 2003 году все шесть стран подписали единое таможенное соглашение с Европейским Союзом, своим главным экономическим партнёром, для упрощения правил торговли между двумя организациями. В последнее время страны GCC всё более активно проводят совместную внешнюю и оборонную политику. В начале декабря 2007 года члены GCC договорились о создании валютного союза и введении единой валюты к 2010 году, однако это решение вызвало некоторые разногласия среди участников. Так, представители Омана пригрозили выходом из проекта, если остальные страны будут настаивать на единой валюте, а представители ОАЭ предупредили, что не успеют технически подготовиться к переходу на единую валюту к указанному сроку. В настоящее время экономики всех стран — членов GCC, кроме Кувейта, привязаны к американскому доллару.
Совет сотрудничества арабских государств Персидского залива — региональная международная организация. В официальном названии организации слово Персидский отсутствует, поскольку арабские государства предпочитают называть этот залив Арабским. Организация создана 25 мая 1981 года. В GCC входят шесть монархий, экономики которых опираются на добычу и продажу нефти: Бахрейн, Катар, Кувейт, Объединённые Арабские Эмираты, Оман и Саудовская Аравия. Совокупная площадь этих стран составляет 2,6 млн. квадратных километров. На этой территории проживают около 35,1 млн человек, хотя гражданами GCC является не более 60% от этого количества. Остальные 40% — иностранцы, приехавшие на заработки.
Совокупные запасы нефти стран — членов GCC насчитывают 484 млрд. баррелей, что составляет больше половины нефтяных резервов стран — членов ОПЕК (Организация стран-экспортёров нефти). Торговый оборот между участниками Совета сотрудничества арабских государств Персидского залива на сегодняшний день равен 10% мирового товарооборота, однако по мнению президента Торговой палаты Бахрейна Иссама Фахру (Issam Fakhro), эта доля может увеличиться до 25% в течение следующих двух лет.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries
A map showing the GCC countries.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries
GCC countries involve all the Arab states of the Persian Gulf with the exception of Iraq, and it is a political and economic regional organization. Connected by numerous cultural and political similarities, the member states of the GCC seek to achieve regional cohesion. With vast oil reserves and subsequent wealth, the GCC countries are some of the richest nations in the world. A regional organization was therefore necessary to secure the regional and international interests of the member states.
What is GCC?
The GCC is a regional organization that seeks to unite its members. The GCC comprises of six oil-rich Arabic nations, which are united on economic and political fronts. The countries have similar cultural and religious identities. They are oil exporters and share economic interests different from those of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Why Was It Founded?
The GCC was founded in 1981 in Abu Dhabi. The primary objective was to promote cooperation and cohesion between member states. The GCC, at its establishment, aimed to foster economic, cultural, scientific and environmental relationships between member states. Security concerns were also addressed by the creation of a defense council, which facilitates military cooperation among member countries.
Member States
Kingdom of Bahrain
Enabled by a liberal economy, the Bahraini dinar is valued as the second highest currency across the globe. Bahrain enjoys a diversified economy to compensate for its little oil reserves such as banking and retail.
The State of Kuwait
With 9% of the world’s oil reserves, the country is ranked 10th regarding standards of living.
The Sultanate of Oman
The Sultanate of Oman has been on an economic diversification quest in the face of diminishing oil reserves.
The State of Qatar
With abundant natural gas and petroleum reserves, the GDP of Qatar ranks the highest in the world.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia boasts 20% of the world’s identified oil reserves and it is the largest nation of all the GCC member states.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE has established itself as a leading trade, financial, and tourism hub in the region and the world.
Objectives and Achievements
The GCC aims to foster economic, cultural, political, and military cooperation between member states. The major goal of the organization has been regional cohesion. One of the most notable achievements of the cooperation has been the establishment of a customs union and a common market, which have boosted mutual trade. The GCC member states have emerged as aviation centers in the world, which have further boosted their economies. Under joint military cooperation, the Peninsula Armor Force was established and continues to be reinforced as a show of joint military might. The association has worked in areas of foreign policy to safeguard members’ interests and has also worked to develop high education standards in member countries. The improved curriculum has been in line with the organization stance that human resource is the greatest tool for development.
Future Goals
The GCC aims at establishing a single regional currency for all the member states. The GCC also seeks to help member countries diversify their economies in the face of fluctuating oil prices. Tighter military co-operation is also a top agenda for the GCC, in light of external and internal threats in some member states.
Military
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Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC]
The Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] was established in an agreement concluded on 25 May 1981 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. These countries declared that the GCC is established in view of the special relations between them, their similar political systems based on Islamic beliefs, joint destiny and common objectives. The GCC is a regional common market with a defense planning council as well. The geographic proximity of the these countries and their general adoption of free trade economic policies are factors that encouraged them to establish the GCC.
Based on their conviction about the connected nature of their security and that an aggression against any one of them is deemed an aggression against all of them, cooperation in the military field has received the attention of the GCC states. Such conviction stems from the facts of geopolitics and faith in one destiny. Moreover, the security challenges in an unstable regional environment, like the Gulf area, imposes on the GCC States coordination of their policies and mobilization of their capabilities.
The Gulf Cooperation Council was formed in 1981 to confront their security challenges collectively. The immediate objective was to protect themselves from the threat posed by the Iran-Iraq War and Iranian-inspired activist Islamism (also seen as fundamentalism). In a series of meetings, chiefs of staff and defense ministers of the gulf states developed plans for mutual defense and launched efforts to form a joint command and a joint defense network.
All GCC states seek to manage complex relationships with Riyadh and deploy multiple tools to maintain a degree of independence of action, he noted. Saudi Arabia is a dominant actor, but none of the five other GCC member states can afford to have Riyadh being too dominant and overbearing. This necessitates strategies of hedging, bandwagoning, and balancing.
| Rank | State | GDP [PPP] |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Saudi Arabia | $ 687,700,000,000 |
| 50 | United Arab Emirates | $ 256,500,000,000 |
| 58 | Qatar | $ 174,900,000,000 |
| 60 | Kuwait | $ 153,500,000,000 |
| 77 | Oman | $ 85,000,000,000 |
| 109 | Bahrain | $ 31,300,000,000 |
While rulers refer to each other as «brothers», the UAE-Saudi divergence has political repercussions from Yemen to Israel, Iran to Qatar and even Turkey. By 2020 the dynamic between Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and his Saudi counterpart, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was central to Middle East events. They intervened in Yemen, but the UAE’s withdrawal in 2019 left the Saudi-led coalition battling the Iran-backed fighters that targeted the kingdom. Abu Dhabi increasingly advanced an independent foreign policy, forging ties with old foes like Israel and on economic recovery at home. Saudi Arabia took aim at Dubai as the Middle East’s business and tourism capital with an ultimatum for international companies to move their regional headquarters to Riyadh.
Ground and air units of the six member states carried out several multilateral exercises between 1983 and 1987 under the code name of Peninsula Shield. Military assistance, funded mainly by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, was extended to Bahrain for up-to- date fighter aircraft and a modern air base, and to Oman to improve its defensive capability at the Strait of Hormuz. The GCC planned to integrate naval and ground radar systems and to create a combined air control and warning system based on Saudi AWACS aircraft. Problems of compatibility with different communication and electronic systems, however, delayed the introduction of these programs.
In 1984 the GCC defense ministers agreed on the creation of a two-brigade (10,000-man) Peninsula Shield Force. This joint intervention force was based in Saudi Arabia near King Khalid Military City at Hafar al Batin under the command of a Saudi officer. In addition to a headquarters staff, the force consisted of one infantry brigade of about 5,000 men with elements from all GCC states in 1992. Its mission, however, had not been publicly defined. It was not clear, for example, whether the joint force would have authority to intervene in a domestic emergency. The force could be enlarged at a time of threat; it was apparently reinforced prior to the Persian Gulf War in 1991 but did not take part in the war as a distinct unit.
In March 1991, after the conclusion of the Persian Gulf War, the six members of the GCC, together with Egypt and Syria, declared their intention to establish a deterrent force to protect Kuwait, with Egypt and Syria to provide the bulk of the troops and the GCC states to provide the financing. The plan subsequently encountered a series of setbacks. At year’s end, there appeared little chance that the Arab deterrent force would be installed. In the meantime, Kuwait had succeeded in obtaining security commitments from the United States and Britain and arranged for the prepositioning of United States military equipment.
The GCC States seek to build up their defence forces according to a common conception. In this context, they have unified operational procedures, training, and military curricula. They also endeavour to accomplish compatibility of their military systems. Moreover the armed forces of the GCC States carry out joint military exercises with the Peninsula Shield Force, as well as joint air and sea manuvers.
Among the important achievements in the military field is the creation of the Peninsula Shield Force in 1982, which incorporates the credibility of the GCC will. Another important achievement was the resolution taken during Kuwait summit in 1997, which entailed to link the GCC Member States with a military communication network for early warning.
Bahrain’s Supreme Commander in Chief His Majesty King Hamad issued Royal Decree Number 18 for the year 2011 on 15 March 2011 announcing a State of National Safety in accordance with Article 36/b of Bahrain’s Constitution of 2002, which will cover all areas of Bahrain as of Tuesday March 15h 2011 for a period of three months. The commander in Chief of the Bahrain Defense force has been mandated to take the measures and procedures necessary to preserve the safety of the nation and its people; these measures will be implemented by the Bahrain Defense Force, public security forces, National Guard and any other forces if necessay.
As protests escalated in March 2011, Bahrain’s government, contrary to the advice of the Obama Administration, invited security assistance from other neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s (BICI) report found that there was a general breakdown and deterioration in the state of safety, security, and law and order during the events in Bahrain in 2011 as elements of the protest movement crossed the threshold from peaceful protest to full blown riots It also found that groups of vandals and gangs of individuals armed with knives, swords, and other weapons were reported in many of Bahrain’s cities and villages where specific groups were targeted and were seriously assaulted.
Due to the country’s vulnerability at that point, the Peninsula Shield Force, part of the mutual agreement signed 10 October 1982 among Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), were activated to insure the integrity of Bahrain’s territorial borders. Their operations were limited to preparing to assist the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) against any confrontation by any foreign armed intervention and in protecting and securing vital locations in the country. Peninsula Shield Forces did not participate in any operations involving confrontations with Bahraini civilians or engage in any form of riot control. Furthermore, The Commission did not find any evidence of human rights violations committed by these units deployed in Bahrain starting on 14 March 2011.
Regarding reforms, HRH the Crown Prince’s initiative for dialogue was extended 3 days after the protest movement started, one that could have led to “significant constitutional, political and socio- economic reforms and precluded the ensuing negative consequences”. The initiative was rejected by the opposition primarily in their belief that they could achieve greater political gains from the streets. Still, the Government have always maintained and continuously reaffirmed that the door for dialogue is and will remain open for anyone genuinely seeking to move Bahrain forward.
After their competition accelerated in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, once close allies, were experiencing a very public falling out. After supporting conflicting factions in Egypt and Syria, as well as vying for dominance over the Arabic news waves, both countries seemed on the verge of plunging the Arab Peninsula into a Cold War. This has upset the allied regional dynamics that the US so carefully constructed after 2003. The security dilemma between them has become pronounced, and Saudi Arabia now looked at Qatar as a threat to its national security, just as it did Iraq over 10 years earlier. Both countries support different anti-government proxies, with Qatar supporting the Brotherhood-affiliated factions of the Syrian National Coalition while Riyadh sided with fundamentalist Salafi groups such as Jaysh al-Islam.
Qatar controls the globally recognized Al-Jazeera, while Al-Arabiya, although based in the UAE, was founded by and is funded by Saudi Arabia. These news channels are in direct competition with one another and support the policies of their protectors. The stakes are increased because each organization is very popular within the region and can influence the hearts and minds of millions.
US President Barack Obama held a summit of Gulf Cooperation Council members in May 2015. Gulf partners coming to the summit said they want to upgrade their security relationship with the United States. GCC leaders came with high hopes, but low expectations. Yousef al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador the United States, at a panel discussion in Washington, called for a stronger security relationship. «We are looking for some form of security guarantee, given the behavior of Iran in the region; given the rise of the extremist threat.» He said that threat warrants formalized commitments. «In the past, we have survived with a gentleman’s agreement with the United States about security. I think today, we need something in writing. We need something institutionalized.»
The United States was not initiating mutual defense treaties with Gulf partners, as such agreements are a “complicated piece of business.” Any treaty or other firm legal commitment would have to be approved by a Congress wary of being legally sucked into any future conflicts in the region.
Instead, the United States would expedite its ability to provide assistance to Gulf countries to build their capacity to deal with “asymmetric threats” related to terrorism, as well as cyber, maritime and border security. The US administration said it was open to the idea of granting its GCC partners major non-NATO ally status, which would make them eligible for certain kinds of military assistance.
After meeting at Camp David on 14 May 2015, President Obama assured members of the Gulf Cooperation Council that the US will assist in the development of an early warning system for missile defense. «The United States will help conduct a study of GCC ballistic missile defense architecture and offered technical assistance in the development of a GCC-wide Ballistic Missile Early Warning system,» reads a statement released by the White House.
As part of the agreement, Gulf states will consult with the US before taking military actions abroad. In return, the US will assist in the creation of a region-wide ballistic missile defense system. In this effort, Washington will fast-track arms transfers to the Gulf nations, and will send a team to the region in the coming weeks to work out the details.
Gulf Cooperation Council
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Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries— Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The GCC was established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 1981. The purpose of the GCC is to achieve unity among its members based on their common objectives and their similar political and cultural identities, which are rooted in Arab and Islamic cultures. Presidency of the council rotates annually.
Arguably the most important article of the GCC charter is Article 4, which states that the alliance was formed to strengthen relations among its member countries and to promote cooperation among the countries’ citizens. The GCC also has a defense planning council that coordinates military cooperation between member countries. The highest decision-making entity of the GCC is the Supreme Council, which meets on an annual basis and consists of GCC heads of state. Decisions of the Supreme Council are adopted by unanimous approval. The Ministerial Council, made up of foreign ministers or other government officials, meets every three months to implement the decisions of the Supreme Council and to propose new policy. The administrative arm of the alliance is the office of the Secretariat-General, which monitors policy implementation and arranges meetings.
GCC agreements typically focus on either security or economic coordination. In terms of security coordination, policies have included the creation of the Peninsula Shield Force in 1984, a joint military venture based in Saudi Arabia, and the signing of an intelligence-sharing pact in 2004. The first significant deployment of the Peninsula Shield Force was in 2011 in Bahrain to guard government infrastructure against an uprising there during the Arab Spring protests. Economic coordination included attempts at economic union, though integrative agreements were often lacklustre in comparison with policy coordination. An agreement to launch a single regional currency similar to the euro by 2010 saw little movement apart from the establishment of a monetary council in 2009. Coordination in tax policy proved fruitful, however: a customs union was implemented in 2015, and the member states began rolling out a value-added tax of 5 percent in 2018. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have tended to lead policy coordination. They were the first countries to send troops to Bahrain in 2011 and the first countries to levy the value-added tax.
While membership of the GCC remained consistent throughout its first several decades, changes in regional relationships sometimes led to speculation on changes in membership. Expansion appeared possible when the interests of Gulf countries aligned with those of other Arab states. Jordan and Morocco, two other Arab monarchies, were invited to join the GCC in 2011, in the midst of the Arab Spring uprisings. Morocco declined, while Jordan’s application remained delayed because of internal GCC disagreements. Conflicting interests at times led to rifts. Egypt and fellow GCC members Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain instated a blockade against Qatar in 2017. In December 2018 Qatar’s emir skipped the GCC’s annual summit and sent an envoy instead, though he sent his prime minister in 2019 as tensions seemed to thaw. The blockade was lifted during the following annual summit, held in January 2021, with Qatar’s emir in attendance.
Gulf Cooperation Council – GCC Countries
Six Rich Countries That Own the World’s Oil
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The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an organization of six oil-exporting countries of the Persian Gulf that is also known as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. The cooperative council formed in 1981 to foster economic, scientific, and business cooperation. The GCC’s headquarters is in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, its largest member. In 1984 the group formed a military arm called the Peninsular Shield Force to respond to military aggression against members.
The members as of Dec. 2020 were Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These Middle East countries share the common faith of Islam and Arabian culture. They also share an economic interest distinct from their OPEC membership. These countries seek to diversify their growing economies away from oil.
List of GCC Countries
The GCC has six member states:
WEF Recommendations for GCC
The World Economic Forum did a study on the future of the GCC members. It recommended diversification away from oil. It encouraged the GCC countries to do a better job of educating their people. That would support more investment in business research and development. Currently, these countries must import foreign workers to fill this need.
Family-based sultanates rule these countries. Their leaders realize that further education could be risky. A more worldly population may want to change the way their country is governed. The GCC leaders want to modernize their economies without creating more uprisings like the Arab Spring. For example, Bahrain had some riots in 2013. Military reprisals and negotiations with the dissidents kept the rulers in power.
The report highlights the danger of a United States attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The possible retaliation by Iran against military bases in the Middle East could spark an all-out regional war. A global recession could follow preventing the GCC leaders from modernizing their countries.
The report also highlights the “best case” scenario. GCC countries could continue to broker peace in the Middle East while also developing their economies. Good examples are Dubai, UAE, and Qatar.
What Happens If GCC Members Drop the Dollar Peg
The GCC countries have reasons to drop their peg to the dollar. But the GCC official policy is that members will keep it until the Council has created a monetary union, like the European Union.
The peg fixes the exchange rate of each countries currency to the dollar. When the dollar fell 40% between 2002 and 2014, it created an inflation rate of 10% in these countries. It forced the price of oil and other commodities to increase. If they removed the peg to the dollar, they would not need to buy so many Treasuries to stabilize their exchange rate. That would cause the dollar to decline, causing inflation in the United States.
It would also mean that oil is no longer priced in dollars. That could result in lower oil prices. But nothing will happen quickly since potential implications need to be studied further.
