Bottom lines up front
- Defense cooperation should prioritize unmanned systems and early-warning capabilities
- European and Gulf companies should plan to co-produce in a partnership, not a client-provider model
- Individual states and companies should start collaborating now without waiting for regional multilateral organizations to strike a deal
Though defense has always been part of the agenda between Europe and the Gulf (particularly at the bilateral level), the evolving security environment in both regions provides impetus for greater cooperation. In the past five years, both European and Gulf governments have witnessed major conflicts on their territories or in their vicinity. The Ukraine-Russia war starting in 2022 and the US-Israel-Iran conflict in 2026 have challenged long-entrenched assumptions about Europe or the Gulfās ability to avoid military escalation. In both cases, local governments faced a new way of war that integrated the latest technologies on the battlefield, be it artificial intelligence or unmanned systems. This has had dramatic consequences for the defense of European and Gulf territories: Russian drones have flown far beyond Ukrainian borders and threatened Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Iran fired thousands of its drones on Gulf capital cities, damaging infrastructure and disrupting local aviation.
At the same time, Europe and the Gulf share a common aspiration toward strategic autonomyāmeaning the ability to rely on their own capabilities to project powerāthat should elevate the defense industry as a key sector for their cooperation in the coming years. This aspiration should not be mistaken for a desire by the Gulf to substitute Europe for the United States, which remains a vital security guarantor and arms supplier for both regions. Rather, it points toward diversification and shared capability-building alongside that relationship.
Against that backdrop, defense cooperation should be pragmatic and driven by shared operational needs, such as co-developing unmanned systems or early-warning capabilities. Pragmatism explains why Gulf states are also deepening ties with South Korea or initiating new ones with Ukraine on air defense and unmanned systems: Europe is one node in a wider diversification strategy, not its sole beneficiary, and Europeās defense industry should calibrate its ambitions accordingly.
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About the author
Jean-Loup Samaan is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Councilās Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative.
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About the Europe Gulf Forum
Image: At Rostock-Laage airbase, the first air-to-air missile of the then newly developed IRIS-T type is mounted on a Eurofighter of fighter squadron 73 "S". The German government has approved arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit confirmed a report in Berlin on Wednesday by "Der Spiegel", according to which the export of 150 Iris-T air-to-air missiles is involved. Reuters