Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have strongly embraced China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) and the larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This links to the fact that the MSRI and BRI advance a variety of their domestic and international economic and political needs ranging from delivering the economic goods to their populaces to diversifying their economies to building new partnerships that advance their external security. Notably, the MSRI/BRI are progressing meaningfully in the GCC due to inter alia the economic capacities of GCC states, the fact that some of the downsides associated with MSRI/BRIs are not relevant, and China’s strong interest in GCC states. Still, the MSRI has different features in different GCC states due to the nature of projects, among other things. The GCC case indicates that successful MSRI implementation requires positive conditions on many fronts and also that implementation characteristics are contingent on country- and project-specific factors.