The first summit between the leaders of GCC and European Union will take place in Brussels tomorrow.
It will be co-chaired by European Council president Charles Michel, and the Amir of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as the rotating president of the GCC.
The summit is seen as an opportunity to further consolidate partnership between both sides by spotlighting common global challenges as well as political, security and economic issues.
Discussions will focus particularly on promoting security and stability in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa amid the growing geopolitical upheavals. The participating countries will also discuss enhancing co-operation to achieve energy security.
Both sides are also seeking to press ahead with economic integration and deepen commercial partnership to facilitate the flow of investments between the GCC countries and the EU.
Other critical issues are also scheduled for discussion, including climate change, enhancing co-operation in technology and innovation, supporting the digital economy, and adopting modern technologies like artificial intelligence to achieve sustainable growth.
The summit will also address common security challenges, including fighting terrorism, ensuring sea navigation security, boosting cyber security, and confronting electronic threats likely to affect the national economies.
“The EU accords great importance to the first GCC-EU Summit and looks forward to promoting partnership between both sides,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said.
The GCC-EU relations are based on a co-operation agreement signed in 1989, which establishes regular dialogue on co-operation between both sides regarding economic relations, climate change, energy, the environment and research.
It is worth noting that the size of trade exchange between the GCC countries and the EU has reached $204.3 billion.
In June 2022, Luigi Di Maio was appointed as the first-ever EU Special Representative for the Gulf. He is responsible for further developing a stronger, comprehensive partnership.
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