Kuwait to raise GCC states' flags on national days
Upcoming GCC summit to be held in Kuwait in December
Cairo: Kuwait will hoist the flags of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries at its state institutions on each country's national day as a gesture of solidarity and celebration.
The Kuwaiti government has directed state agencies to continue raising the respective flags of GCC countries on their national days, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas reported, citing an official letter.
In a letter addressed to the Kuwait Municipality, the Council of Ministers' Secretary-General, Saleh Al Mulla, stated that the flags of GCC states are to be hoisted annually on their national days as a gesture of sharing in each country's celebration.
Created in 1981, the GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.
Kuwait will host the 45th GCC summit on December 1, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Abdullah Ali Al Yahya said.
"Kuwait looks forward to welcoming the GCC leaders," he told Al Rai newspaper on the sidelines of a milestone GCC-European Union summit held in Brussels last week.
The GCC is making efforts to get citizens of its state members exempted from the Schengen visa.
Last December, a GCC summit held in Doha approved a unified Gulf visa system allowing the holder to travel across the grouping’s six countries.
A month earlier, the GCC interior ministers, meeting in Oman, approved a Schengen-like unified tourist visa for their countries in a landmark move aimed at boosting tourism and the economy.
“This approval is an important step illustrating that we, the six GCC countries, can grant visitors a visa that allows them to enter all six countries,” the bloc's Secretary General Jasem Albudaiwi said earlier this year.