The relationship between the Gulf and the United States is a bond that begun more than 50 years ago. The discovery of oil in the region established a strategic and economic partnership that has lasted into the present. Often scrutinized and examined on by both members, US-GCC relations is a dominant tenant of Middle Eastern politics. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War...

A cornerstone in the development of the Gulf, the relationship between the Iran and the Arab Gulf states is one that dates back hundreds of years. Although the two entities are geographically separated by the Gulf – whose ownership has been a significant point of contention – it is perhaps more accurate to say that the Gulf acts as a connection rather than a barrier. Indeed, Iran has had...

The traditional relationship between the GCC States and Canada has been heavily focused on economic and trade cooperation. By 2003, two-way trade between Canada and Saudi Arabia for example reached $1.4 billion and there are approximately 7,000 Canadians currently living and working in the kingdom. Similarly, the UAE has large and steadily growing commercial links with the UAE ranking at...

From the Maghreb to the Red Sea, to the Gulf of Guinea and Cape Agulhas, the African continent encompasses great cultural, political and economic diversity. In spite of such internal diversity, a number of common determining factors have drawn close together Gulf-African relations as reflected in a sustained cooperation effort between two groups of state actors. Most prominent among these...

The GCC-Iraq relations have been marked by a fluctuating character, as they have almost always vacillated from extreme tension and conflict to periods of constructive cooperation. Iraq has constantly represented one of the major pillars on which the regional balance of power hinges, just as it has frequently constituted a source of unsustainable threat to regional stability.
Over the past...

With bilateral non-oil trade touching the $17-billion mark (oil trade amounted to another $28 billion) in 2005, relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and India have evolved greatly since Bombay’s days as a premier marketing centre for pearls and dates from the region, and Indian currency and postage stamps were in circulation in the Gulf.

The GCC countries...

With the Gulf region and South Asia representing proximate geographical entities, Pakistan’s relations with the GCC countries have been defined by strong historical, cultural, religious, economic and strategic ties, based on shared political and security interests as well as strong economic interdependence. In addition, Pakistan’s unique geo-strategic importance is linked to several key...

While historically China has not developed strategic ties to the Gulf region, that relationship has witnessed a significant rise in relevance over the late 1990s and into the twenty-first century. Being driven primarily by almost exponential increases in energy requirements, China has begun to pay a lot of attention to regional Gulf affairs and is increasingly willing to commit political and...

With the trade bill between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Japan touching $88.54 billion in 2005, the current era of rising oil demand coincided by very high prices and security volatility in the neighborhood of both, the importance of GCC-Japanese relationship at the bilateral and international levels is immense.

The importance of this relationship lies in the two...

The topic of the relationship between the GCC and the successor states of the Soviet Union, namely the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), can be approached from two angles. On the one hand, we can cite the thematic approach, where several dominant themes, comprising of both multilateral and bilateral issues of the day, provide substantial basis for interaction between the states and...