[20010228]RS20831_海湾合作委员会防务协议.pdf

1 See “US-Gulf Cooperation Council, Trade and Investment: Trends and Implications”, CRSReport RL30383, December 3, 1999.Congressional Research Service ? The Library of CongressCRS Report for CongressReceived through the CRS WebOrder Code RS20831February 28, 2001Gulf Cooperation Council Defense AgreementGordon S. BrownResearch Associate Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division-name redacted-Specialist in Middle Eastern AffairsSummaryA summit meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), held in Bahrain at theend of 2000, saw the attending heads of state and government take a number of modestmeasures in the areas of economic and security cooperation which are the organizationsobjectives. The most important of those measures, in terms of U.S. interest, was thesigning of a mutual defense treaty which would, if ratified, formally commit the membersof the organization to consider an external aggression against one member as an attackon all. The United States currently provides the security umbrella for those states as partof its Persian Gulf deployment, and has an interest in the defense agreement, to thedegree that its mutual defense provisions might enable the GCC states to should