economic cooperation within the GCC should increase substantially to reach a strategic cumulative mass that insures achieving a strong, coherent and unified front not affected by trivial disputes or minor misunderstandings. The GCC countries need to increase their defensive capabilities and to do so in an integrated manner that facilitates joint command and control functions and compatible operational logistics. Geography dictates that the security of the GCC countries will depend on our collective efforts to achieve these objectives rapidly. It is thus alarming to see some members of the GCC enter into separate bilateral agreements with international powers, on both the security and economic spheres, as precedence over the need to act collectively. These separate arrangements are not compatible with the spirit of the Charter of the GCC. They diminish the collective bargaining power and weaken not only the solidarity of the GCC as a whole but also each of its members in both the intermediate and long terms. --More 2247 Local Time 1947 GMT
