Highlights from the 2026 Dialogue

A crisis in the Gulf does not remain a Gulf crisis. Its consequences travel through shipping routes, energy markets and industrial supply chains, reaching Europe’s economies and security interests. At the eighth German-Arab Gulf Dialogue on Security and Cooperation, that interdependence raised an urgent question: what must Germany and the Gulf states do differently when neither can take the international order underpinning its prosperity for granted?

Organised by the German-Arab Friendship Association (DAFG), the conference brought senior political, diplomatic, business and research figures together in Berlin on 21–22 September 2026 under the theme “GCC–Germany–EU: Strategic Partners in Volatile Times”. With its eighth edition, the Dialogue continued to provide a dedicated high-level forum for security cooperation between Germany and the GCC states. It connected strategic assessments with the practical experience of those who can turn closer relations into working partnerships.

With the EU–GCC summit approaching, this exchange had particular significance. It allowed participants to identify priorities, test expectations and explore where cooperation could advance. By bringing these perspectives together, the conference laid substantive groundwork for the further development of a shared agenda. The discussions produced recommendations and avenues for follow-up, giving practical substance to the ambition of a stronger strategic partnership.

Prince Turki AlFaisal gave the geopolitical discussion particular force. He described the Gulf states as bearing the consequences of a war they had not chosen as their own. His assessment challenged German and European participants to take the region’s security concerns seriously as matters of shared interest. Uncertainty about American security guarantees, he argued, required a reassessment of partnerships. Broadening those relationships did not mean abandoning the United States; it meant taking greater responsibility for security and cultivating additional sources of cooperation.

The implications reached beyond defence. Turki called for Europe and the Gulf to act as partners in shaping the international environment, drawing on their geographical proximity and shared interests. His argument also extended to technology: both regions should help shape emerging capabilities rather than remain dependent on developments elsewhere.

Different approaches to regional security remained visible. Professor Volker Perthes advocated a multi-layered security architecture, including regional confidence-building measures that would also involve Israel and Iran.

Omid Nouripour, Vice-President of the German Bundestag, stressed the importance of listening to the Gulf’s concerns and linked solidarity with the region to shared interests in secure trade routes and international rules. These contributions exposed a central task for future cooperation: finding practical ways to build security amid sharply differing assessments of threats and trust.

The economic discussions made clear how closely those questions are tied to prosperity. Gulf representatives called for greater German and European support in the regional crisis, pointing to its wider economic consequences. Participants argued for a relationship extending beyond the exchange of goods towards mutual investment, diversification and more resilient connections. Transparent regulation, access to public procurement and investment protection emerged as conditions for businesses to act on political ambitions.

Against the backdrop of the forthcoming summit, renewed EU–GCC free-trade negotiations and deeper agreements with individual Gulf states were discussed as ways to strengthen that framework. The practical challenge is to translate diplomatic momentum into conditions under which companies can invest, build and cooperate with confidence.

The CARPO workshop on AI and digital cooperation illustrated how the relationship itself is changing. GCC countries are developing AI capabilities, data centres and digital ecosystems, with ambitions to shape technologies, infrastructure and standards. Cooperation therefore needs to reflect a Gulf region increasingly seeking a role as a development partner. Combining European technological expertise and industry with Gulf capital and infrastructure offers scope for joint development – provided projects recognise the capabilities and priorities of both sides.

Energy brought the difficulty of implementation into sharp focus. The discussions exposed tensions between immediate supply needs, industrial competitiveness and the transition to lower-carbon systems. Contributions called for reducing trade barriers and reviewing regulatory requirements that can complicate energy procurement and discourage investment. Methane-related requirements and supply-chain obligations were raised as areas where policy objectives and practical effects on cooperation need closer examination. Hydrogen illustrated a further challenge: production capacity alone cannot create a market without infrastructure, viable costs and dependable demand. These exchanges identified a concrete task for further dialogue – aligning regulation, infrastructure and investment conditions so that reliable energy supplies and the transition to lower-carbon systems can advance together.

A similar demand for reliability ran through the security and defence industries workshop. Opportunities for long-term industrial partnerships and technology transfer were explored alongside questions about the continuity of German export policy. Confidence that political commitments will endure emerged as an important condition for deeper cooperation.

Partnership also depends on the people and institutions that sustain it. Discussions on employment and skills examined changing Gulf labour markets, workforce development and working conditions. Education, cultural exchange and joint research were highlighted as foundations for a relationship reaching beyond governments and companies and involving younger generations. The Young Leaders Forum, organised by cooperation partner The Diwan, complemented the conference programme with a dedicated format. In commercial mediation and arbitration, participants explored further workshops in the Gulf to exchange expertise. The media workshop proposed a continuing forum for German and Gulf journalists and opinion-formers, supporting knowledge of each other that extends beyond the next crisis.

Taken together, these contributions established a substantive basis for further work ahead of the EU–GCC summit. Christian Koch’s summary of the strategic partnership discussions identified protection, diplomacy and connectivity as priorities. Across the conference, proposals gave those priorities practical expression: strengthen regional dialogue, improve the conditions for mutual investment, develop technologies jointly, reduce barriers to energy cooperation, connect projects with infrastructure and demand, and sustain professional and societal exchange.

The practical value of these recommendations will depend on the next stage: developing them into specific initiatives with interested partners. They emerged from discussions with different perspectives and do not constitute a jointly adopted declaration. They nevertheless provide a substantive basis for work in institutions, businesses and research organisations, and for the dialogue surrounding the EU–GCC summit.

The eighth Dialogue demonstrated the importance of a sustained forum for this exchange: Germany and the Gulf states have substantial interests at stake in each other’s stability and development. Sustained exchange makes those interests clearer, brings differences into the open and creates opportunities to act together. The task now is to build on the groundwork laid in Berlin and carry those proposals forward – towards a more dependable partnership with tangible benefits for both sides.