This half-day workshop (closed event), organised bij Clingendael and Leiden Asia Centre, brings together an international group of experts from Europe and China. The aim is to identify major challenges in the relationship between Europe and China in the coming decade with regard to ‘third regions’ where both Europe and China have important economic and security interests.

The meeting will address in particular the role of the Middle East in Sino-European relations. China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) strategy and the visit of Xi Jinping to the Middle East as well as China’s ‘Arab Policy Paper’ of January 20161 signify an intensified approach of Beijing towards the Middle East. At the same time the increasingly complex interaction between the Syrian civil war, Turkey-Russia relations, Iran-Saudi Arabia relations, and immigration into the EU points at the intimate linkage between stability in the Middle East and European security.