The first GCC meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi in May 1981. Pictured are Sheikh Zayed, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, Saudi Arabia's King Khalid and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, Ruler of Dubai. Photo: Intercontinental Hotel Abu Dhabi
The first GCC meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi in May 1981. Pictured are Sheikh Zayed, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, Saudi Arabia's King Khalid and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, Ruler of Dubai. Photo: Intercontinental Hotel Abu Dhabi
The first GCC meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi in May 1981. Pictured are Sheikh Zayed, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, Saudi Arabia's King Khalid and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, Ruler of Dubai. P
One by one, the aircraft arrived, each carrying a head of state. Waiting at Abu Dhabi's international airport on that warm May afternoon about 42 years ago was another leader, the President of the United Arab Emirates.
Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father, greeted them in turn – the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
From what is now Al Bateen Airport, convoys sped to the city's newest and most luxurious hotel, the InterContinental. In the middle of the ballroom, a round table had been set, ringed with large leather chairs.
L-R: Sheikh Khalifa of Qatar, Kuwait Emir Sheikh Jaber, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Zayed of the UAE and Sheikh Isa of Bahrain, at the first GCC summit in Abu Dhabi, 1981. Photo: National Archives
It was there, at 7.55pm on Monday, May 25, 1981, that the charter was signed creating the Gulf Co-operation Council.
Sheikh Zayed opened that first 40-minute summit of the GCC. “What the Arab world expects of us is serious solidarity, co-operation and loyalty,” he told his fellow leaders.
It was a declaration of intent but also of identity. The new symbol of the GCC, hanging on the wall of the InterContinental ballroom, showed the six nations united together in a map without boundaries.
Beyond those borders there was much disunity. Iraq and Iran were locked in a bloody war that would last for eight years. Within six months of the summit, Egypt's Anwar Sadat would be assassinated by army officers linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Two years earlier, other extremists had seized the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Iranian Revolution swept aside the monarchy of the Shah and replaced him with supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Despite the region's vast oil and gas wealth, the GCC six were no match for the military power of the US and the Soviet Union, both of which saw the Gulf as strategically important to their own interests.
As the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai Al Aam reported: “The Gulf leaders know we live in a wild world, one in which oil attracts sharks in the manner of blood.”
Sheikh Zayed put the position of the GCC in more detail in an interview with Al Khaleej newspaper a few days later.
“We are entitled to our lands and properties and we shall combine all our efforts to protect our countries, our peoples and our security,” he said.
“We don’t want any country, big or small, interfering in our affairs or conducting their conflicts on our soil, air and seas.”
Sheikh Zayed at a press conference following the first GCC summit in Abu Dhabi, 1981. Photo: National Archives
Even as Ruler of Abu Dhabi in the 1960s, Sheikh Zayed had been aware of how vulnerable his country was. Negotiations that would eventually create the UAE in 1971 originally included Bahrain and Qatar in the federation, until both countries decided to seek independence.
The seven emirates of the UAE were a powerful message that unity is strength. The creation of the GCC would take this a step further.
The first moves towards a union of Gulf states began in 1977, with an approach to Sheikh Zayed by Sheikh Jaber, then Ruler of Kuwait. Together, the two countries shared the idea with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.
All six leaders who sat together in the ballroom of the InterContinental are now gone, the last being Sultan Qaboos of Oman, who died in 2020.
The organisation they created continues, with the 43rd summit held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in December.
From left, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Nawaf, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim, Oman's Deputy Prime Minister Fahd bin Mahmoud, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Dr Nayef Al Hajraf, Secretary General of the GCC, before the opening session of the 41st GCC summit in the Saudi city of Al Ula. AFP
Since 1981, the GCC has endured testing times, with the Iran-Iraq War followed two years later by Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a GCC member. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia participated in its liberation.
The business of the GCC was dominated by security concerns in its first two decades. Peninsula Shield, a joint military force to deter aggression against member states, was created in 1984.
The council has increasingly moved forward in economic areas, including projects to link electricity grids and water supplies, and a Gulf railway.
Citizens of the six member countries also benefit from a single market that gives common access rights for employment, health care, retirement benefits, property ownership and education.
At a summit in 2021, Secretary General Nayef Al Hajraf, from Saudi Arabia, underlined the organisation's economic power – a GDP of $1.6 trillion, and the sixth-largest export market in the world at about $610 billion annually.
The most significant achievement of the GCC, though, may be that it gave a common voice to a corner of the Arab world once considered to be on the margin of the Middle East.
As Abdullah Bishara, the Kuwaiti diplomat and first GCC Secretary General, put it: “We strengthened the identity, the Gulf identity. There are now ‘Gulf’ people.
“We don’t make sweeping statements about being ‘Arabs’. There are Egyptians, there are Sudanese and there is the Gulf.”
Who were the leaders at the first GCC summit?
The first GCC summit – in pictures
Sheikh Zayed welcomes the heads of state at the first GCC summit on May 25, 1981. The meeting was held at the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi. Photos by Khushnum Bhandari / The National and courtesy InterContinental
Sheikh Zayed, left, walks through the hallway of the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi with Khalid bin Abdulaziz, the King of Saudi Arabia.
The six heads of state of the Gulf countries sit around a handcrafted table in the Dar El Istiqbal ballroom during the first GCC summit in 1981.
Despite undergoing a full renovation in 2007, the Dar El Istiqbal ballroom at the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi remains almost the same today as it did 40 years ago.
Heads of GCC states held formal and informal discussions at the two-day event to strengthen the bilateral relations among six countries.
Jiraporn Wattanasuntranon, 62, from Thailand, started working at the hotel in 1980 and remembers the buzz around hosting the first GCC Summit.
Framed photographs from the first GCC summit hung on the walls of the hotel lobby offer a snapshot of the historic meeting.
A table being flown into the hotel for the first GCC summit in 1981. This is the table where the six heads of state signed a document to form the GCC.
Over the past four decades, the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi has hosted five GCC summits - 1981, 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004.
Sheikh Zayed and Sultan Qaboos of Oman during a meeting at the GCC summit in 1981.
From left, Wael Sami, director of sales and marketing, Jiraporn Wattanasuntranon, pay master and Marwan Naser, chief security manager at the InterContinental hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Marwan Naser, chief security manager at the InterContinental hotel was present during the second GCC summit hosted by the UAE in 1986.
Marwan Naser shows a throwback image of himself from the 1986 GCC summit in the Dar El Istiqbal ballroom at the InterContinental hotel.
The banquet corridor leading to the Liwa Majlis and Dar El Istiqbal ballroom at the hotel.
Sheikh Zayed and the heads of state walk through a corridor of the hotel.
The Liwa Majlis hosted several side meetings during the first GCC summit in 1981.
Sheikh Zayed, who addresses GCC heads of state as his brothers, said the meeting would pave the way for 'security, development and solidarity' in the region.
*A version of this story first appeared in The National in 2021, to mark the 40th anniversary of the GCC
The biog
Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.
Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella
Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
On sale: now
Key recommendations
Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
Karl Malone 36,928
Kobe Bryant 33,643
Michael Jordan 32,292
LeBron James 31,425
Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
A little about CVRL
Founded in 1985 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) is a government diagnostic centre that provides testing and research facilities to the UAE and neighbouring countries.
One of its main goals is to provide permanent treatment solutions for veterinary related diseases.
The taxidermy centre was established 12 years ago and is headed by Dr Ulrich Wernery.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
FIXTURES
Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.
Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place play-off