While they compete for influence with Russia and China, they should maintain room for coordination with both countries.Europeans need to enhance transatlantic complementarity and stop ceding leverage to their Middle Eastern partners.A coherent European approach should be guided by principled pragmatism: acknowledging the region as it is rather than as Europeans want it to be, while staying focused on the principles needed to secure longer-term stability.The Middle East’s geopolitical shifts pose huge challenges to Europe, but multipolarity could create space to promote European interests more effectively.Russia’s war on Ukraine is accelerating these dynamics, while also provoking destabilising price shocks and underscoring the region’s importance to energy markets.
