second meeting of senior EU, GCC officials meet in Kuwait Sunday

The second informal meeting of senior officials between the 6-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the 27-member European Union will be held on Sunday in Kuwait, which currently holds the GCC. Abeer Al-Duaij, a diplomat at the Kuwait embassy in Brussels, told Kuwait News Agency, (KUNA) today that the first such meeting was held in the Saudi capital Riyadh in December 2012. A preparatory meeting will be held on Saturday between Kuwait and the GCC General Secretariat in Kuwait. The EU side will be led by Hugues Mingarelli, Managing Director for the Middle East and Southern Neighborhood at the European External Action Service (EEAS) who will be accompanied by a number of other EU diplomats from Brussels. Topics on the agenda include EU-GCC development and challenges and developments in the region including Syria, Middle East peace process, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and global issues like terrorism and piracy, said Al Duaij