Sultanate to chair 2018 GCC summit in Riyadh

Muscat: The 2018 GCC summit will be held in Riyadh chaired by the Sultanate,” said Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs in a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA) and Oman TV on Wednesday. The new system follows the decision of the 37th GCC Summit, which was held in Bahrain. The ministerial meetings and other sub-meetings will be chaired by the host state. Previously, a GCC state may request another state to host the summit and assume its chairmanship. This procedure has been amended to regularise and integrate it in the measures and mechanisms applied for convening a summit. As for the formation of a committee for amending the Basic Statute of the GCC, Bin Alawi pointed out that there is a text about the mechanism for settling disputes and differences among GCC states. — ONA