GCC Binding Test

Taking place for the first time in Doha (Qatar) after a three-year Gulf crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit is a test of regional cohesion.

GCC leaders at the 44th Summit in Qatar. (Source: alarabiya)

After the upheavals, the GCC needs a new agenda to affirm the stability of the region, towards more practical and cohesive cooperation. This depends on a series of issues that the summit must address.

First of all, measures to promote economic integration, towards the goal of regional economic unification by 2025. In this direction, the GCC will have to accelerate the establishment of the Gulf customs union before the end of 2024, based on a unified customs legal system, unified tariffs, unified finance and administration in the field of import and export.

This was followed by the implementation of a series of projects, including the Gulf common railway project that was approved in 2003. In the first phase, the project will connect the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Omar, and then continue to Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, creating a regional connectivity infrastructure.

The region’s 2023-2030 tourist visa strategy is also a major goal. By introducing a single tourist visa that can visit all six member states, the GCC hopes to increase tourist numbers by around 7% per year, from 38.8 million in 2022.

Finally, how to reach a common agreement on relations with Israel in the context of the war raging in the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian disaster for the Palestinians. Over the past few years, there has been internal conflict within the GCC over the normalization of each country's relations with Israel.

Therefore, reiterating the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as outlined in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative at this conference will be a test of GCC unity.

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