Rivals or Partners?

Geopolitical occurrences and the changing role of the United States in the Middle East have led to an increased interdependence between the EU and China in the Middle East, a region where the economic and security interests of each meet, compete and converge. While the main drivers of EU-China relations remain economic, the security dimension of their relationship is steadily increasing. It is therefore timely to undertake a preliminary mapping of EU-China security relations in the Middle East, in order to assess the potential drivers towards cooperation and explore possibilities to turn the greater interdependence into increased cooperation rather than expanding competition.