Turkey- Cooperation Council of Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) High Level Strategic Dialogue Fourth Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held in Istanbul, on 28 January 2012. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu will host the meeting.

TExisting cooperation in various fields with GCC states will be reviewed and new possibilities for cooperation will be considered during the meeting. Ministers will exchange views on the regional and international issues which are in the joint sphere of interest of Turkey and GCC states.

Turkey attaches great importance to the relations with GCC member states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman) and wishes to develop its relations with these states both in bilateral level and in the framework of GCC. Turkey acts in close cooperation and solidarity with GCC member states on regional and international issues with a view to contributing regional peace, stability and prosperity.

In this framework, Turkey – GCC High Level Strategic Dialogue Mechanism was established in line with the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed at the Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Jeddah on 2 September 2008.

Aforementioned mechanism is of importance as it is the first regular consultation mechanism which GCC has ever established with a third state.

Strategic Dialogue with GCC aims at developing existing positive relations between Turkey and GCC countries in more structured way. For this purpose, a regular cooperation and consultation mechanism has been established to cover mainly the fields of politics, economics, defense, security and culture.