Facilitating travel around the Gulf

Recent reports that Bahrain and Saudi Arabia signed a new cross-border agreement, that will allow nationals to enter both countries either by simply carrying a valid passport or using an identity card starting in August 2003, comes as a happy surprise.

This latest decision further illustrates how far along GCC states have come in facilitating travel and commerce within their common borders and throughout the Arabian Peninsula.

For years, GCC states were mired in serious frontier disputes but, with a few exceptions, all six have taken significant steps to correct the legacies of both the Ottoman and British Empires.

When Bahrain and Qatar accepted the March 2001 International Court of Justice decision on the Hawar Islands, or when Oman and the UAE reached a seminal accord in 2002 to further delineate their boundaries, years of very difficult and often acrimonious exchanges came to an end.

In the spring of 2000, even Saudi Arabia and Yemen reached an accord that will, hopefully, draw the long-festering demarcation line between the two.

These substantial initiatives were not easy to reach. In several conversations with senior GCC government officials, I was always reminded why joint policies were next to impossible to achieve, as long as boundary disputes remained. Most realised that fundamental steps were required in this critical area before any real progress could be contemplated on equally pressing issues.

Yet, after two decades of high-level consultations, GCC officials discarded the complacency principle. All have concluded that unity is not just a symbolic goal that should be lauded during ceremonial gatherings.

Rather, all understand that genuine cooperation necessitates tools which, in turn, may well allow GCC nationals to tackle new challenges. It is within that spirit that recent border accords and new travel regulations the wherewithal of authentic transformations must be evaluated.

At first, GCC states abolished visa requirements for their nationals, before relaxing very strict regulations for visitors and expatriate workers. Remarkably, immigration and customs authorities universally derided for heavy-handed methods acquired civilising habits everywhere in the Gulf (especially when comparing current behaviour with the situation in the 1970s and 1980s).

And, in an increasingly busy environment when travel is frequent, authorities opted to be creative, outdoing each other by introducing flexible regulations.

In fact, GCC officials are so confident of these socio-economic (as well as political) gains, that they are now discussing the eventual issuance of joint visas for all six member-states – and Yemen when the latter's membership progresses to full status – for all foreign passport holders.

This is similar to the Schengen system that encompasses most major European countries. When that day occurs, and it may be sooner than many assume, another giant step would have been taken in the Gulf.

It has not always been like this. Just a few years ago, it was quite difficult for a Gulf national from Kuwait to enter Oman without sweeping paperwork. Entrance into Saudi Arabia was even more difficult, necessitating a valid reason, sponsor, passport, visa and appropriate fees.

Visitors to the Sultanate of Oman required something called the NOC – no objection certificate –that even testified to the holder's good character. Times change and, in this instance, for the better.

Visitors to Muscat can now purchase a 14-day multiple entry tourist visa at Seeb International Airport, for a mere $20. The half-page form takes two minutes to fill and the issuance of the visa even less.

Happily, similar conditions exist in Doha, after they were introduced in Manama several years ago. Travel through the UAE, of course, is even simpler for most Western passport holders and, increasingly, for Middle Eastern and Asian citizens as well.

We are now told that nationals who travel on the Bahrain-Saudi Arabia causeway will not even have their passports stamped. It will not be long before a more universal approach is set-up with appropriate security measures in place for all GCC states.

For those who regularly deride GCC officialdom for lack of creativity in their many endeavours, these easy travel regulations are truly gigantic steps forward, and it behooves each one of us who travel to, from, and within the Gulf region to grasp their significance.

At a time when borders are far from being secure elsewhere in the Middle East – as in many other parts of the world – GCC states have demonstrated that they are indeed capable in this field. Countries take their territorial integrity seriously, and one of the clearest manifestations of that sovereignty is the regulation of borders.

Who comes in, who goes out, and how easily, are indicators of the exercise of that sovereignty. It is the more evolved and self-confident leaderships that make the transition satisfactorily.

Joseph A. Kechichian, author of several books, is an expert on Gulf and Middle East affairs.