Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shakes hands with Syria's President Bashar Al Assad. Reuters

The Arab League as it has existed since its formation in 1945 has remained a loose political formation with a common political and cultural legacy, but it has not been made stronger through economic ties as in the case of European Union with open borders for the movement of goods and people and a common currency. It can be said that the European Union has been possible because it is a contiguous land mass, and that in the case of Arab League the territory it spans is much too vast, and it covers different geographical zones. But this could be turned into an advantage if the Arab countries can spot the complementarities of their geographical situations and the economic patterns that emerge from the geography. Unlike EU, members of the Arab League have a common language which would facilitate trade across the stretched out territories from Oman on the Indian Ocean to Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean.

But it seems that it would take a longer time to forge the economic ties among the members of the League. But they are coming together on the issue of climate change and there is the realisation that it is something that affects them all and they need to act together. The climate summits in Sharm Al-Sheikh in Egypt in 2022 and the one to be held in Dubai later this year has opened the way for Arab League countries to play an active role in setting the global agenda. Right now the focus is on the political agenda. King Abdullah of Jordan has talked about the importance of the setting up the Palestinian state to end the Palestine-Israel conflict, and Tunisian President Kais Said said that international silence on the aggression of Israel against Palestinians has to be called out. There is a general consensus among the Arab states that Palestine is a major issue for all of them and the solution lies in forming an independent Palestinian state.

Syrian President Assad observed that it is time that outsiders are prevented from interfering in the affairs of the Arab states. But the leaders have to agree that the outside powers can be kept out of the Arab affairs if the Arab states work closely with each other in protecting the interests and welfare of the Arab people spread across different states. Economic cooperation would indeed be a key element. The two Arab countries that are leading the economic resurgence of the region are the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.