For the first time ever, the leaders of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait) will meet with their European counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday 16 October, a meeting preceded on Tuesday by a dinner for foreign affairs ministers.
The summit is expected to be dominated by the situation in the Middle East, as well as the possibility of a free trade agreement between the two blocs, something which has been under negotiation for 35 years. This summit is a continuation of the rapprochement between the EU and the GCC, following the resumption of joint ministerial meetings (see EUROPE 13268/3).
“The (Gulf) region is playing an increasingly important economic and geopolitical role, and this is only set to increase. We therefore need to have a more strategic relationship with these partners”, explained a senior official.
According to another senior European official, the summit will focus on the geopolitical situation. The leaders will specifically discuss the situation in the Middle East and the role of Iran. The Gulf States are involved in the region. Qatar is part of the negotiating team working towards a ceasefire in Gaza, and the EU and Saudi Arabia have jointly launched a global alliance to push for the implementation of a two-state solution (see EUROPE 13492/4). On Monday 14 October, the High Representative of the Union Josep Borrell explained that “this is the moment to have a meeting in order to converge the points of view of the Arab world and the European Union members” with regard to the Middle East.
The summit should also provide an opportunity to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The Europeans are still trying to bring the position of their partners closer to their own. Furthermore, several Gulf countries are involved in discussions on prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia, as well as Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and sent to Russia. “They want to play an active role in (resolving) the war, but they also have relations with Russia”, summed up one senior official.
The situation in Africa and cooperation on global challenges will also be discussed.
Bilateral relations between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council will also be discussed. The Europeans want the relationship to be based on five pillars: trade and investment, renewable energies, regional security, people-to-people initiatives – including the issue of visas – and inter-institutional relations, explained a European source on Tuesday 15 October.
The ‘trade and investment’ aspect is likely to be the most important. The EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council have been trying to negotiate a free trade agreement for more than three decades. According to a senior official, a number of issues are blocking progress in the negotiations, including access to public procurement and oil derivatives. He added that the EU was not the only partner to have difficulty negotiating such an agreement with GCC countries. “The key word is ‘complementarity’”, said a European source. “Even if negotiations for a free trade agreement are blocked, we want to deal with these countries – even bilaterally on investment and on certain aspects of trade – to complement the agreement”, the source added.
The European Union is the second largest trading partner for countries of the Cooperation Council, with trade worth €170 billion in 2023. In that year, imports of mineral fuels accounted for more than 75% of total EU imports from the six countries, according to EU Council figures.
The subject of human rights is also to be addressed. “We can see how the gap is widening and we have always been in favour of dialogue on this issue”, said a senior European official. The EU holds high-level human rights dialogues with each of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
A joint declaration could be adopted at the summit. This remained under discussion on Tuesday. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)