It looks like the UK will soon be able to finalise its most significant post-Brexit trade deal in more than a year. True, we signed an “enhanced trade agreement” with Thailand in September, but this one will be far larger.
It is estimated that a trade deal with the Gulf could add 16pc to British trade with the region, which already totals $73bn (£58bn).
“I hope the free trade agreement with the UK will be signed by the end of this year,” Abdulla bin Adel Fakhro, the Bahrain industry minister, told me when I visited the country last month.
“Bahrain and the UK are alike in that we are both very open to investment,” he said, pointing out that the Gulf states have made huge investments in the UK, and one of the key objectives of the deal, from his point of view, will be to protect those.
On top of that, he argued an overall deal with the Gulf region will pave the way for smaller countries such as Bahrain, with significant defence, political and cultural ties to the UK, to do their own deals with Britain, deepening co-operation.
Sure, there are still obstacles in the way. The UAE is still concerned about the way the sale of this newspaper to RedBird IMI was blocked by the last government, with Abu Dhabi looking increasingly unlikely to get back the money it put into the transaction.
Starmer will have to work very hard to make sure that the bitterness over that does not get in the way of getting the agreement across the line. And yet, the really significant point is surely this: a Gulf deal needs to open the door to securing a whole series of agreements for three reasons.
First, with the return of Donald Trump to the White House the global economy may soon retreat into a series of protectionist trade blocs.
Trump plans to impose massive tariffs on China, and significant ones on the European Union, and both sides will no doubt feel forced to retaliate with levies and trade barriers of their own.