1981 - The founding of the GCC

RIYADH: When, in January 1968, Britain announced its intention to leave the Gulf by 1971, it sent shock waves throughout the region. The search intensified for a new and more reliable security architecture. It took several steps, ending with the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council on May 25, 1981. 

During the period between Britain’s announcement of 1968 and its actual withdrawal from the Gulf on Dec. 16, 1971, there was first an attempt to form a nine-member union between Bahrain and Qatar and the seven Trucial States, all of which were under various protection treaties with Britain. When that attempt failed, efforts were directed at forming a union among the Trucial States. The UAE was announced on Dec. 2, 1971, initially of six emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al-Quwain. Ras Al-Khaimah, the seventh emirate, joined the following February.  

After that first step, the search continued for a larger framework to include the rest of the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait championed the renewed efforts. In May 1976, he formally called for the establishment of a Gulf union during a visit to the UAE, whose president, Sheikh Zayed, strongly supported the idea. 

In November 1976, in Muscat, a security framework that would also have included Iraq and Iran was discussed but abandoned because of fundamental differences over the concept, especially between Iran and Iraq. 

Efforts to establish the GCC continued without Iran or Iraq. Saddam Hussein of Iraq tried to hinder those efforts unless Iraq was included, which was difficult to do given its war with Iran at the time. The Soviet Union and China were also opposed, for fear that the new organization would be Western-oriented. 

The security vacuum was part of the rationale for advancing the founding of the GCC to close ranks among Gulf states. Besides Britain’s withdrawal, the revolution in Iran in February 1979 produced a clerical regime explicitly seeking to export its brand of radical politics to its neighbors and undermine their security. It helped in establishing, funding and training militant groups for that purpose in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, in addition to spreading its influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. 

In October 1979, in a meeting held in Taif, Saudi Arabia, the general framework of the GCC was agreed, but differences remained on some issues. Some favored focusing on security and military integration — even a formal military alliance — while others wanted the new organization to emphasize soft power and economic integration. 

In 1980, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal was given the task of bringing the different views together and leading the exercise of drafting the charter, supported by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah (who later became the Emir of Kuwait from 2006 until his death in 2020), Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak, and others. 

A flurry of meetings of ministers and experts took place in the early months of 1981, in Kuwait, Riyadh and Muscat, to finalize the draft, which was finally adopted by the heads of state on May 25, 1981, in Abu Dhabi, in the first formal meeting of the new organization. 

The GCC Charter was a compromise between the different formulations discussed for the new group. It did not privilege a particular emphasis, but called for “coordination and integration between member states in all fields, leading to their unity.” The reference to unity as a goal was important to guide the work of the organization. The reference to “all fields” gave the impetus for the formation of institutional structures dedicated to different branches of integration, including political, economic and security. 

Today, the GCC Secretariat employs about 1,500 civilian staff, from the six member states, and hosts the main policymaking divisions of the organization. Its work is aided by about 30 specialized entities that deal with specific issues. There are economic organizations such as standards, patents, intellectual property and investment, as well as internal security organizations. Military organs employ additional uniformed staff. 

Since its inception in May 1981, the GCC has undoubtedly accomplished a lot of what it set out to do more than four decades ago. Economic tools, such as the free trade area, which was set up in 1983, the customs union (2003) and the common market (2008), have created great synergies between member states that have led to improved efficiencies and wide and dynamic markets. 

However, attempts at reaching a full economic union and a unified currency have yet to succeed. 

By economic and social indicators, the GCC states have been a brilliant success, in part because their membership in the GCC provided economies of scale, a deeper market and wider reach. 

In 1981, the combined gross domestic product of the six member states was just shy of $200 billion, and most GCC states were performing poorly in economic and social indicators. At that time, most GCC states had just shaken off British rule, which had lasted about 200 years, impoverished their economies, and ossified their political and social development. As a result, these states were underperforming economically and needed the solidarity and support of other GCC members. 

Today, the combined GCC GDP is about $2.4 trillion — a 12-fold increase over 1981. At the same time, per capita income has skyrocketed in some member states. And while in 1981 several GCC member states were low-ranking in most human-development indices, such as the level of education, health conditions, life expectancy and the gender gap, today GCC countries lead on those indices. Illiteracy has been fully eradicated, free health services are top notch and GCC universities sit high on international rankings. 

Other significant achievements were also made, including the establishment of the unified military command in November 2018, building on decades of close cooperation between land, air and naval forces, including through the Peninsula Shield based in northern Saudi Arabia since 1982, and the GCC Naval Operations Coordination Center in Bahrain. 

The GCC Police was established in 2012 and has been based in the UAE since. It coordinates the work of internal security forces at the operational level, in addition to the Riyadh-based Security Affairs division. 

However, a lot remains to be done to reach the goal of “unity” cited in the charter. The emerging, and almost existential, challenges that the region faces require new ways of doing things. Business as usual is no longer adequate. 

Member states have, over the years, proposed closer cooperation to meet those challenges. In 2012, the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia proposed transition from the “cooperation” phase to a full-fledged union. 

In 2015, King Salman proposed a comprehensive vision aimed at upgrading cooperation mechanisms in economic, social, political, internal security and defense areas. His vision was adopted by other leaders and has become the GCC’s road map since then. While work is in progress to implement the remaining elements in this vision, Saudi Arabia has announced that it intends to submit a phase two of this vision. 

One area that has been referred to in summit communiques repeatedly is the reform of GCC’s institutions, including the GCC Secretariat and the 30-odd other entities in its orbit. It has been recognized that governance needs to be overhauled to provide more transparency, accountability and efficiency. 

King Salman’s vision for the GCC, which was adopted by all leaders in December 2015, started that process but the pace of change has not been fast enough. 

• Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views.