Türkiye’s institutional relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
commenced with the “Framework Agreement for Economic Cooperation between
Türkiye and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)”
signed on 30 May 2005 in Manama, Bahrain. This framework agreement aims to
monitor economic cooperation activities and designate new areas of
cooperation. A Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation was decided to be
established to this end.
The Memorandum of Understanding establishing a Strategic Dialogue Mechanism
between Türkiye and the GCC was signed on 2 September 2008 in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia on the occasion of Türkiye-GCC Foreign Ministers Meeting. The
aforementioned Strategic Dialogue Mechanism sets the ground for deepening
Türkiye’s relations with the GCC in political and cultural areas, in
addition to the existing economic cooperation.
While this Strategic Dialogue Mechanism places the relations between Türkiye
and the GCC on an institutional basis, Türkiye is the first country with
which the GCC has established such a bilateral mechanism.
Another aim of the aforementioned Memorandum of Understanding is to convene
High Level Strategic Dialogue Meetings between Türkiye and the GCC every
year at the level of senior officials and Ministers. Within this framework
five High Level Strategic Dialogue Meetings have taken place so far (2008
in Jeddah, 2009 in Istanbul, 2010 in Kuwait City, 2012 in Istanbul and 2016
in Riyadh). While a Joint Communique and the 2011-2012 Joint Action Plan
were released at the end of the meeting in Kuwait, another Joint Communique
was issued following the meeting in Riyadh.
In line with the 2011-2012 Joint Action Plan issued following the third
High Level Strategic Dialogue Meeting, the following 11 sub-committees have
been pursuing their work: trade and investment, agriculture and food
security, transport and communication, energy, electricity and water,
environment, health, culture, education, economy, fiscal and monetary.
The fifth Türkiye-GCC High Level Strategic Dialogue Meeting of Foreign
Ministers was held under the auspices of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as
the GCC Term President, in Riyadh on 13 October 2016, with the
participation of Foreign Minister H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Issues pertaining to deepening cooperation between Türkiye and the GCC in
economic, trade, cultural and other fields were discussed in the fifth
Türkiye-GCC High Level Strategic Dialogue Meeting of Foreign Ministers. The
Ministers also decided to revive the work of the above-mentioned 11
subcommittees established under this mechanism and to extend the existing
Joint Action Plan until the end of 2018.