CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Seite 52

ARAM ABAJYAN
nexus clearly demonstrates this case. During 2007-2008 the escalation
of commodity prices fuelled inflationary pressures on the GCC states,
and an economic dissatisfaction started to take place. Food security
became a significant priority for the GCC. Meanwhile, a careful
managing of scarce water resources was not sustainable as well. As
the GCC states were facing serious problems regarding the lack of
food and water resources, new economic linkages between individual
Gulf countries and food-producing states started to develop
significantly. In this context, the GCC’s main partners were African
countries, as well as the South and Southeast Asian states. Thus, ‘oil-
for-food’ objective is becoming more beneficial referring to the GCC-
Asia and GCC-Africa collaboration. Through ‘oil-for-food’ initiative
GCC is cooperating closely with the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN). In 2009 GCC-ASEAN joint meeting at foreign
ministers level took place in Bahrain and the sides expressed their
willingness to give continuation to political and economic ties
initiating various programs and necessary steps for deepening the
scopes of mutual cooperation 36 .
Moreover, the ASEAN Secretary General Suring Pitsuan while
referring to GCC-ASEAN relations mentioned the following: “You
have what we don’t have, and we have plenty of what you don’t have,
so we need each other” 37 . This initiative clearly illustrates how the
changing geo-economic balance of powers impacted and repositioned
the GCC’s role and status in the global economy. The notions of
global governance with their significant changes beginning from the
new century influenced on the GCC’s development mechanisms, as
emerging new powerful players became involved in the global system
of power, politics and policy-making processes 38 .
In June 2009 the BRIC forum was established in the city of
Yekaterinburg, Russia (Brazil, Russia, India, China) 39 . This new initiative
36
Ulrichsen K., Repositioning the GCC States, op. cit., p. 235.
McCartan B., Farmers forgotten in Oil-for-Food Deals, The Peninsula, 2009,
http://khmerization.blogspot.am/2009/07/farmers-forgotten-in-oil-for-food-
deals.html
38
Ulrichsen K., Repositioning the GCC States., op. cit., p. 237.
39
In 18 February 2011 South Africa also joined the organization; hence its
abbreviation became BRICS.
37
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