Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

This file concerns the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It contains reports, press cuttings and correspondence on:

• The nature of the future trading relationship between the European Economic Community (EEC) and the GCC, including tariff arrangements and the present position of the Generalised System of Preferences (GPS)
• The sixth Supreme Council summit meeting, held in Muscat on 3 to 6 November 1985, with a joint communiqué referring to a joint defence posture; coordination of economic, industrial, agricultural policy; the Iran-Iraq War; the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO); the unity of Lebanon; the Casablanca Arab League Summit; terrorism; and relations with the Soviet Union
• Assessments of the Summit by the GCC Assistant Secretary General Dr Abdulla Al Quwaiz; and Omani Foreign Minister Yusif Bin Alawi
• A position paper for the GCC by the Foreign Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah ahead of a proposed EEC meeting
• A joint communiqué from a ministerial-level meeting in Luxembourg on 14 October 1985 by Sheikh Sabah for the GCC and for the EEC by Jacques Poos
• Visits to the Gulf by Eberhard Rhein and Robert Hull
• The position of Commissioner Claude Cheysson concerning tariffs on petrochemicals and data on Saudi petrochemical exports to the EEC
• Discussions between Cheysson and the Minister of State Malcolm Rifkind dealing with GCC-EEC trade and other issues
• EEC-GCC talks on petrochemicals; the possibility of a re-imposition of tariffs on GCC products
• US-GCC trade discussions
• The prospect of a Japan-GCC trade agreement
• Petrol price differences in Gulf States
• A meeting of GCC Defence Ministers in Kuwait
• Regional defence and the establishment of the Peninsula Shield Force; and exercises due in Oman in 1986
• The establishment, by Oman and the UAE, of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union; and Qatar’s reaction
• The concerns of West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher over Gulf stability; and his thoughts on a rapprochement between the Syrian President Hafez Al Assad and King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan and other subjects.