Kuwait’s Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Army General Mohammed Al-Khader on Wednesday stressed the importance of coordination meetings during GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) joint military exercises to raise the level of ground troops' combat readiness.

General Al-Khader, who made the assertion during the 14th coordination meeting for the GCC Ground Forces Commanders, affirmed that they discussed cooperation in the field of training and maneuvers.

The meeting (photo) was attended by ranking GCC Ground Forces’ Officers, in addition to a delegation from the GCC General Secretariat.

In December 2013, leaders of the GCC announced the formation of a unified military command for the GCC countries.

The unified command set-up has been mandated to the GCC Joint Military Committee, according to a statement released by the council's secretariat at the end of the 34th Summit in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

The Council also announced the establishment of the Gulf Academy for Strategic and Security Studies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In December 2000, the member states agreed to a joint defense agreement based on the principle that any aggression against a member state would be considered as aggression against all the GCC states.

The agreement obliged all six states to provide military assistance to help each other. It further established a Joint Military Committee to supervise cooperation and promote collaboration in joint military exercises and coordination in the field of military industries.

In 2006, Saudi Arabia circulated a proposal during the GCC summit meeting in Riyadh that called for the adoption of “centralized command and decentralized forces,” and to disband the Peninsula Shield Force as a collective single military unit in the region.

However, what emerged was the 2009 agreement to create a joint force for quick intervention to address security threats, as was demonstrated in the UAE-Saudi intervention in Bahrain in 2011.

Source: KUNA; AFP