In bilateral and multilateral frameworks, common interests are putting together regional alliances of like-minded countries in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean — promoting peace, combating terrorism, and upholding international law.

The meeting of the foreign ministers of Greece, Israel, Cyprus, and the UAE, which took place on Friday, and the upcoming visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos to Saudi Arabia are the most recent examples of this diplomatic advocacy.

The UAE joined in the four-way talks in the Cypriot city of Paphos for the very first time since 2010 in one of the international forums that has been developed in the eastern Mediterranean. Dendias and Panagiotopoulos will establish a Status of Forces Agreement in Riyadh, which will set the stage for the construction of a Patriot-2 antimissile battery in Saudi Arabia to aid the Kingdom's war against Houthi militia in Yemen.

“The emerging network of regional cooperation is building a new paradigm, something that is shattering the glass ceiling of the old, limiting image of our community as a place of chaos, conflict, and crisis,” said Nikos Christodoulides, the Cypriot foreign minister and meeting host. The four-way talks would prosper from Israel and the UAE's recent simplification of relations and could provide an opening for the UAE to enter other regional initiatives. 

“For stability in the region, a collaboration that includes both Israel and the UAE is critical,” Dendias said. “We also support other international efforts directed towards regional peace, including the AlUla Accord and the Saudi initiative to end the Yemen conflict.”

“The conference of Greece, the UAE, Cyprus, and Israel in Paphos signals two key facts,” Spyridon N. Litsas, professor of international relations at the University of Macedonia in Greece and the Rabdan Academy in Abu Dhabi, informed Arab News. Firstly, the UAE and Israel seem capable and eager to work together to secure the area. Second, clever diplomatic resistance is gaining momentum in the region, and it is aimed at combating Turkish revisionism.” Regional questions have been posed by Ankara's activities in the eastern Mediterranean and its support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Alliances are established either to counter an attacker's risk or to counter the influence of a revisionist actor,” Litsas explained.

“Alliances can be built based on a smart response to Ankara's atavism, as Greece, the UAE, Cyprus, and Israel have demonstrated. Turkey generates greater revisionism than its neighbors can bear.” The visit of Greece's foreign and defence ministers to Riyadh has been in the works for a long time but has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Athens, like the UAE, wants to expand its security cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Last summer, Saudi F-15 fighter jets were deployed at Greece's Souda Bay airbase, and the two countries held high-level diplomatic discussions.

Athens wants to strengthen its role as a crossroads between the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf. According to Aristotle Tziampiris, professor of international affairs at the University of Piraeus, "a Greater Mediterranean region is developing based on new alliances and interventions connecting the Gulf with Mediterranean countries. Greece is at the center of this significant growth, focused on shared interests and perspectives, such as seeing Turkey as a more volatile actor and Iran as a potentially fatal, perhaps ongoing threat.”

According to Tziampiris, “Athens founded the Philia (Friendship) Forum in February, which includes Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Without a question, Greece is getting closer to many Gulf countries to add to regional stability.”