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Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)

مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج العربية
Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
Flag of Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
Flag
Logo of Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
Logo
Map indicating CCASG members
Map indicating CCASG members
Headquarters Riyadh City Logo.svg Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
Official languages Arabic
Type Trade bloc
Membership
Leaders
Bahrain A. bin Rashid Al Zayani
 Kuwait
Establishment
• As the GCC
25 May 1981; 36 years ago (1981-05-25)
Area
• Total
2,673,108 km2 (1,032,093 sq mi)
• Water (%)
0.6%
Population
• 2017 estimate
54,017,620
• Density
20.21/km2 (52.3/sq mi)
GDP (PPP) 2017 estimate
• Total
$3.464 trillion
• Per capita
$64,121
GDP (nominal) 2017 estimate
• Total
$1.505 trillion
• Per capita
$27,865
Currency
  1. Sum of component states' populations.

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (Arabic: مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج العربية‎), originally (and still colloquially) known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union consisting of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq. Its member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Charter of the Gulf Cooperation Council was signed on 25 May 1981, formally establishing the institution.

All current member states are monarchies, including three constitutional monarchies (Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain), two absolute monarchies (Saudi Arabia and Oman), and one federal monarchy (the United Arab Emirates, which is composed of six member states, each of which is an absolute monarchy with its own emir). There have been discussions regarding the future membership of Jordan, Morocco, and Yemen.

A 2011 proposal to transform the GCC into a "Gulf Union" with tighter economic, political and military coordination has been advanced by Saudi Arabia, a move meant to counterbalance the Iranian influence in the region. Objections have been raised against the proposal by other countries. In 2014, Bahrain prime minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said that current events in the region highlighted the importance of the proposal.


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