Defence ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have approved the opening of a forward command for the bloc's Unified Military Command in Kuwait, with appropriate forces to be allocated to it, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi said.

The decision was among those taken on Tuesday at the 23rd session of the GCC Joint Defence Council in Manama. The meeting was chaired by Bahrain's Minister of Defence Affairs, Lieutenant General Abdullah bin Hassan Al Nuaimi, who holds the current presidency, and attended by defence ministers from member states. Albudaiwi said the agenda included a number of important decisions intended to take joint Gulf military cooperation "to broader horizons of integration".

He pointed to directives issued by GCC leaders at their extraordinary meeting in Jeddah last April on strengthening joint military action, describing them as an expression of "a firm Gulf will to safeguard the security and sovereignty of member states" and to bolster their ability to confront common threats.

Referring to what he called rapid developments in the region, including Iranian attacks, Albudaiwi praised military coordination among member states in responding to them, saying the security of Gulf countries is "a shared Gulf responsibility". He condemned the attacks, which he said had damaged civilian sites and infrastructure in GCC states, and commended the performance of the bloc's armed forces in countering them.

He also condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including the targeting of holy sites, and reaffirmed the council's full solidarity with the kingdom, stressing that its security is "an integral part of the security of all GCC states".