Middle East is a natural area of interest, rivalry and cooperation of the most important international
players, due to its strategic location at the borders of three continents as well as sources
of energy it owns. China’s policy in Middle East has been widely analysed in the recent years and
literature of this subject gains newer and newer titles. Context of rivalry in the area relates to U.S.
in the majority of studies, especially if comes to period of post-Arab Spring, when internal changes
in the region are accompanied with diversifi cation of particular countries’ foreign policy, in favour
of closer cooperation with BRICS countries. Position of the EU, the closest neighbour of the Arab
World, also changes. Europe loses in this region not only if comes to economy but politics as well.
Arab countries noticably increase their interest not only in economic cooperation with China, but
also Chinese way of development.
The aim of the article is to present and evaluate actions of the EU and China in Middle East
region within recent years. It is hypotesized that China’s increasing engagement in cooperation with
Middle East countries inevitably leads to political and economical rivalry with the EU, especially
if comes to Arabic part of Mediterranean Sea, which is the area where strategic interest of Europe
is the most strongly articulated.
Key words: European Union, China, neighborhood policy, Middle East
