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Doha: Gulf security, energy policies and foreign labour will top the agenda of the talks among the six Gulf leaders at the Summit opening here on Sunday, analysts said.
The two-day meeting that will take place on December 3 and 4 will be preceded by ministerial consultations on Sunday that will put the final touches to the programme of the discussions.
King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who boycotted a GCC summit in Qatar in 2002 due a row between the two countries over Al Jazeera's controversial news coverage of Saudi affairs, is now expected to take part in the summit, to be attended also by leaders of Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and United Arab Emirates in addition to the GCC Secretariat.
"The plan to set up a joint nuclear energy plant for the production of power will top the agenda of the talks," Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah, the GCC secretary general told Qatari daily Al Arab in an interview this week.
The study of common energy policies, currency union and a joint foreign labour strategy will be the focus of the discussions aimed to streamline the integration of the six Gulf countries in the face of common problems posed by domestic and regional challenges, analysts said.
"The GCC have been moving towards a unified electricity grid for quite some time now, and a nuclear energy power capability would be a cost effective solution to the future power demand that its rising economies and populations are expected to create," Prof Steven Wright, Assistant professor in International Affairs at Qatar University, told Gulf News.
The labour policies and a proposal by Bahrain to put a six-year cap on foreign labour, will be among the most difficult issues to be addressed at the summit.
Pressing issue
"The main issue is financial. The large amount of money being sent out of the region is an on-going problem as is the presence of a majority expatriate population.
"Labour reform in terms of putting a cap on the amount of time certain groups of expatriates can live in the GCC is a more pressing issue for Bahrain given its large unemployment problem, but is not an issue shared by some of its neighbours which complicates a GCC-wide agreement being reached," said Wright, who specialises on Gulf politics.
Touching on the other issues in the agenda, Wright said the much discussed currency union is still likely but it will probably not achieve its 2010 target date.
With regard to Iran's nuclear programme and the security concerns to be addressed at the summit, he said there is a need and an opportunity for the GCC to develop a collective security agreement that would include Iran.
"This holds the potential to defuse the problem and guarantee security for all of the Gulf countries."
Commenting on the Iranian nuclear issue, Prof Meharn Kamrava, director of the Doha Centre for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University said at the upcoming summit the GCC is likely to reaffirm Iran's right to a nuclear programme.
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