GCC Seeks Union

The Gulf Cooperation Council,an organization of six Arab states,is moving toward a common currency and other closer economic ties by 2010.The GCC consists of Saudi Arabia,Kuwait,the United Arab Emirates,Oman,Bahrain and Qatar.Problems posed by the financial crisis have made this drive for unity more urgent than in the past,when it was hindered by squabbles.The oil-based economies of the GCC have seen their revenues decline sharply as global demand for petroleum products withers.This raises the specter of political instability in a region where radicals are all too eager to exploit such dislocation.And Shiekh Khalifa,the prime minister of Bahrain,pointed out that the rest of the world has been coalescing into economic blocs,so it is high time the GCC sped up its integration project.The GCC is definitely aware of the high costs of fragmentation in an increasingly competitive environment.