Senior vice president for engagement at the Atlantic Council
European and Gulf leaders should ‘be bolder’ in pursuit of ‘common agenda’
“Now is the time.” With the serene waters of the Bay of Navarino as a backdrop, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivered closing remarks last Saturday night at the inaugural Europe Gulf Forum, hosted by the Antenna Group in partnership with the Atlantic Council. Mitsotakis emphasized the opportunities for both Europe and the Gulf in strengthening ties across energy, defense, technology, and trade. “We’re always looking to attract investment from the Gulf into Europe,” he said. “But we should also be bolder in looking to invest in [the Gulf], as it is going through a profound transformation.”
Mitsotakis was one of more than twenty leaders who gathered in Costa Navarino, Greece for the Forum, including six heads of government, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the president of the European Central Bank, and the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The summit broke new ground as the first dedicated public-private platform for strategic cooperation between Europe and the Gulf. It also featured a unique format, with leaders meeting in an entirely private, off-the-record setting, far from the glare of cable news and social media. During a break in the closed-door sessions, I caught up with Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudia Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs and former ambassador to Washington. “We have common interests with Europe. We have a common history with Europe. We both know that the objective is to advance our common agenda,” he said. “And when you are able to have those conversations in a private environment, it allows for a deeper and more thoughtful dialogue.”
That sense of shared purpose will inevitably be tested by external pressures, from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to the war in Ukraine. Last weekend's gathering showed why both sides should keep talking.
Highlights from the inaugural
Europe Gulf Forum
The inaugural Europe Gulf Forum brought together more than twenty leaders for three days of private discussions in Costa Navarino, Greece. Attendees included Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, prime minister of Qatar; Finnish President Alexander Stubb; Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis; Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah; andPresident of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides. See here for a full list of attendees.
Rating recession risk
“I felt in the room,” Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe said, “some relief at how resilient economies have been in Europe, in the Middle East, in the world, but also this balance between: Could resilience shift to crisis?” It could, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in their wide-ranging conversation. Three of four key economic indicators— oil prices, inflation, borrowing costs, and financial stability risks—are “going in the wrong direction.” A prolonged “no war, no peace” scenario into 2027 risks recession.
“The small, off-the-record, leaders-to-leaders conversations really showed a lot of commonality between Europe and the Gulf countries,” Jörn Fleck, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, reported as the Forum wrapped up. Fleck said that in the rooms where attendees gathered, “leaders agreed that there’s so much potential for these two regions to work together more, on key issues from defense and technology, to energy, to trade and supply chains.” As the heads of state, prime ministers, and key business leaders met amid two wars and with the Strait of Hormuz closure stretching into its third month, “they’re going to have to face these challenges together,” added Jonathan Panikoff, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the United Arab Emirates’ president, shared in a chat on the sidelines his key takeaways from the Forum. “This is a relationship where we are underperforming, and we can do a lot more,” he said, identifying as one “obvious” area for more cooperation the conclusion of free-trade agreements long under negotiation. In addition, he explained how Gulf leaders think about Iran—and the United States and Israel—after two months of war they “worked very hard to avoid.”
As the Forum ended, Kempe framed the moment that brought the leaders together amid global crises: “These are two regions that have deep interests in each other, but they’ve never been very well developed.” Participants identified three sectors in which to develop deeper cooperation: strategic infrastructure and connectivity, technology and security cooperation, and long-term investment in energy resilience.
The Europe Gulf Forum will continue as an annual gathering, with an ongoing private dialogue between public- and private-sector leaders continuing between editions. Antenna Group Chairman Theodore Kyriakou, founder of the initiative, said that the Forum is “intended to be the first of many gatherings to find solutions—one where Europe and the Gulf can speak candidly, think strategically and work together in a more practical and consistent way over time.” Kempe added that the candid conversations in Greece “can serve as a catalyst for action on security, energy, trade, and technology.”
