Brussels, 04/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) are to meet on Tuesday in Brussels for political consultation. Discussions will cover the situation in the Persian Gulf and in the region (Middle East, Iran, Iraq, India and Pakistan) as well as the fight against the networks supporting terrorism. The meeting will bring together the senior officials of the various Foreign Ministries.
On Wednesday, the Joint Cooperation Committee will meet to prepare the different themes of the ministerial meeting of 28 February in Grenada. During this formal session, in the context of the cooperation agreement of June 1988, discussion will cover commercial cooperation and the state of progress in negotiations for a second agreement geared to free trade, investment, customs cooperation and in the fields of energy and the environment as well as in the technologies, company partnerships, the media and universities. It will also be a question of opening a European delegation in Riyadh. The EU will inform its partners on the follow-up to be given to changeover to the euro.