Gulf Cooperation Council
Regional trade bloc in the Middle East
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| April 26 2025 | David Lammy visited Oman and Qatar to discuss progress with the trade negotiations. |
| March 20 2025 | Keir Starmer discussed the trade deal in a phone call with Mohammed bin Salman. |
| December 18 2024 | Douglas Alexander updated the House of Commons on the ongoing trade negotiations. |
| May 14 2024 | Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom hosted a joint investment summit with over 450 British business attendees, including representatives from HSBC and British Airways. |
| April 2024 | Etihad Rail and Oman Rail announced a joint venture, Hafeet Rail, to potentially construct the first international link of the Gulf Railway connecting Abu Dhabi with the port of Sohar, Oman. |
| April 9 2024 | Keir Starmer discussed the trade deal in a phone call with Mohammed bin Salman. |
| 2023 | The UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Arab Emirates regarding financial services. |
| July 4 2023 | Bahrain announced plans to invest £1 billion in the UK to strengthen financial services ties as part of the potential trade deal. |
| February 23 2023 | Etihad Rail network officially opened for cargo transportation. |
| September 29 2022 | First round of negotiations for the Gulf Cooperation Council–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement concluded. |
| August 22 2022 | First round of negotiations for the Gulf Cooperation Council–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement began. |
| June 2022 | Negotiations for the Gulf Cooperation Council–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (GCCUKFTA) officially began, marking the first attempt at a comprehensive trade agreement between the UK and the GCC nations. |
| January 2022 | Bahrain's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed Al Zayani, expressed hope for completing negotiations by the end of that year or mid-next year. |
| 2021 | Trade negotiations for the GCC-UK Free Trade Agreement intensified, coinciding with the Premier League's approval of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund's takeover of Newcastle United. |
| June 2021 | International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced the trade agreement would target a £1.6bn annual economic boost for the UK. |
| 2019 | British trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was valued at approximately 45 billion pounds ($61 billion). |
| November 27 2018 | UAE Ministry of Finance and Abu Dhabi Department of Finance signed an agreement to fund Phase 2 of the country's rail network, a 605-kilometer line from Ghuwaifat to Fujairah. |
| August 2018 | Kuwait began construction of a 111-km railway line connecting to Al-Nuwaiseeb on the Saudi border. |
| March 7 2017 | At the Middle East Rail 2017 conference in Dubai, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani stated the Gulf Railway's necessity for regional development and announced a feasibility study for a GCC regional rail authority. |
| 2016 | Brexit referendum held, with the UK voting to leave the European Union, which prompted Gulf states to press for a post-Brexit trade agreement with the UK. |
| December 2016 | At the 37th GCC summit in Bahrain, the GCC Supreme Council stressed the importance of members' commitment to the railway project, with Saudi King Salman requesting a draft project review. |
| April 2016 | GCC transport ministers meeting in Riyadh postponed the project completion deadline from 2018 to 2021. |
| November 2015 | Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) President Mohamed Al Suwaiket announced that project implementation had begun in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, with plans to start in Saudi Arabia within two months. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Gulf Railway & Gulf Cooperation Council–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.