Manama: A Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) security agreement will contribute to a large degree to regional security while enhancing inter-Gulf relations, a Kuwaiti minister has said.

Addressing the media one day after taking part in a parliamentary session to discuss the highly anticipated Gulf security pact, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shaikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah said that he had highlighted its significance in the talks with the lawmakers whose approval is needed for its ratification.

“We accepted the invitation from the foreign relations committee at the National Assembly to join the committee members to explain to them that the proposed draft Gulf security agreement would not conflict with Kuwaiti laws or constitution,” he said on Friday, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

The government’s delegation to the session with the parliamentary committee included the ministers of interior, justice, and endowment and religious affairs, he added.

“The ministers explained to the committee the full implications of joining such an agreement, from a number of standpoints, including the military, economic, and political aspects, with the overall emphasis on the fact that such an agreement would go far in reinforcing existing bonds between the states of the GCC,” he said.

The foreign minister was talking to reporters on the sideline of a luncheon hosted annually by the Capital Governor Shaikh Ali Jaber Al Sabah and to which senior government officials and members of the diplomatic corps are invited.

Kuwaiti lawmakers on Thursday were divided over the merit of the Gulf security pact, even though most of them supported it for its “local and regional benefits.”

Those who resisted it argued that some of its provisions clashed with the Kuwaiti constitution and laws.

The security pact has been promoted in the Gulf as crucial in boosting collective security among the six-member states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The security pact was approved by the GCC leaders at their advisory summit in Riyadh in May 2012, but it needed to be signed by the interior ministers and endorsed by their parliaments. The ministers inked their approval in November.

GCC officials said that the agreement stipulated full cooperation between member states and mutual responsibilities to preserve their collective security and stability.

The pact also highlighted the need to promote common security arrangements to the highest standards to help combat transnational and organised crime, they said.

The member countries said at the Bahrain Summit in 2012 that they endorsed an amended version of a Gulf security pact first announced at the Bahrain Summit in December 1994.

“The agreement aims to broaden cooperation, to unify and integrate security measures and to exchange expertise, potential and information in a manner that helps the concerned security agencies to assume their tasks according to the highest standards,” Bahrain’s foreign minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said.