The European Union opened its first summit with the Gulf states on Wednesday in Brussels.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was received by President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the EU Council Charles Michel on his arrival at the summit. Prince Mohammed held a meeting with Von der Leyen on the sidelines of the event later on Wednesday, Saudi Press Agency reported. The crown prince also held meetings with French president Emmanuel Macron, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez and Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis during the event.
Opening the summit, Michel affirmed the bloc’s readiness to build a strategic partnership with the GCC countries, noting that the first summit held at the level of heads of state and government since the launch of official relations between the two sides in 1989, was a message of unity and hope.
He said that hope was needed more than ever considering that global stability is now threatened by the situation in the Middle East region. Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the 27-member EU has reached out to other regional blocs, holding its first summit with ASEAN countries and its first for eight years with the CELAC community of Caribbean and Latin American countries.
Its aim in meeting the six Arab states in the Gulf Cooperation Council is to make the relationship more strategic, recognizing those countries’ influence particularly in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. “The Gulf region is at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and Africa. It plays a very important role in many of the crisis of today,” a senior EU official said.
An EU partnership with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would cover trade and investment, renewable energy, regional security and citizen issues such as visas. Though Brussels wants the GCC partners to agree strong language on Russia’s military assault on Ukraine, it is not expecting them to fully adopt its position in blaming Moscow. The two blocs are arguably closer on the Middle East, where the EU is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and broader de-escalation.
One request from the Gulf side is visa liberalization. Currently, no EU visas are required for short stays for UAE citizens, while those of other Gulf nations need to secure a visa valid for five years.