Brussels, 20/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The acting leader of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem al-Sabah, Kuwait's minister for foreign affairs met the EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana in Brussels on Tuesday as well as Commissioners for external affairs and trade, Chris Patten and Pascal Lamy. Meeting focused on negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and the bringing together of the six oil producing countries of the Gulf. The situation in the region, Iraq and the Palestinian territories were also discussed.
At the end of the meetings with Mr Solana, Mr Al-Sabah declared that, "Israel is an outlaw state and there should be an international position to deal with this state". Speaking about the European reaction to the assassination of the Hamas leader he stated, "We welcomed the EU statement in condemning this criminal act and hoped the European role would be more active in the next period". In connection with Iraq, he informed his country's press agency that lengthy discussion on the situation in the Gulf had taken place, "We agreed on the importance of the transfer of power on June 30". He also said that they had agreed on the "pivotal role of the UN" in this process. The same themes were brought up with Chris Patten with whom he also tackled the subjects on the agenda of the Joint EU/GCC Cooperation session in mid-May in Brussels.
The discussion with Pascal Lamy focused on negotiations for a second agreement on reciprocal free trade which was still floundering on a series of sensitive issues on which the Commissioner said there was a common desire to see resolved. The GCC have not been able to agree on aluminium, petro-chemical products and fisheries access, whereas the EU have misgivings about the services sector, public procurement and investments frameworks. Both sides want to speed up negotiations. The negotiators, who have maintained permanent technical contacts, are going to meet up in June and July and are expected to be able to progress but no date has been set so far for un-blocking these negotiations.