Maritime security around the Arabian Peninsula is facing its greatest obstacles in decades. On the one side, the situation in the Red Sea remains tense. Despite two international maritime missions – US-led Prosperity Guardian striving to deter the Houthis through force and the European-Union (EU) operation EUNAVFOR Aspides attempting to secure the passage of commercial ships through Bab Al Mandab – Houthi attacks have continued, leading merchant vessels to continue avoiding the waterway. On the Peninsula’s other side, Iran continues to challenge freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Through frequent military exercises and a parliamentary resolution giving the Supreme National Security Council the right to seal off this maritime choke point at any time, Tehran ensures that the closure of the Strait remains a constant threat.
As these risks multiply, the traditional guarantor of maritime security the world over – the United States – preoccupies itself more and more with its own hemisphere, leaving the task of reliably safeguarding passage through Bab Al Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz increasingly in the hands of regional powers. For European and Gulf countries, the US’s evolving posture in the Middle East means not only that freedom of navigation in economically vital waterways like the Gulf and Red Sea can no longer be taken for granted; Washington’s retreat also leaves open the question of who will assume the mantle of upholding what was once considered an established global norm.
To discuss this globally relevant challenge as it relates to Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, and the shared neighbourhood that connects them, KAS together with the Gulf Research Center (GRC) and King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) implemented a workshop on “Shared Interests, Shared Actions in Maritime Security: Securing the waterways around the Arabian Peninsula” from 5-6 November 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Over two days, 72 participants representing the Saudi and German governments and armed forces, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and leading think tanks in the Gulf, Europe, and East Africa diagnosed the root causes of threats to maritime security around the Arabian Peninsula, in addition to discussing collaborative approaches to address these issues.
On the workshop’s first day, participants forged a broad consensus as they diagnosed the drivers of maritime risks around the Arabian Peninsula. With respect to the Red Sea, offshore challenges to freedom of navigation have onshore roots. Persistent political instability and state weakness in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and other littoral countries generate fertile ground for armed militias like the Houthis to threaten merchant ships traversing Bab Al Mandab and the narrow basin that lies beyond. On the Arabian Peninsula’s other side, discussants agreed that the current Iranian regime derives greater benefit from threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz than actually doing so, while tangible present-day maritime dangers centre around GPS spoofing or cyberattacks on (hard) infrastructure. Nevertheless, Saudi participants pointed out that the fall of the regime in Tehran could reproduce in Iran the dynamic of incomplete state sovereignty that similarly threatens maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
Building on these exchanges, participants brainstormed proposals to address persistent threats to Red-Sea and Gulf security on the workshop’s second day, focusing especially on initiatives involving EU-GCC cooperation. In both theatres, discussants identified a shortage of naval hardware as a major factor limiting increased EU and Gulf engagement in securing the waterways around the Arabian Peninsula. Given this constraint, potential areas for EU-GCC cooperation include military-industrial partnerships in the production of ships, submarines, and technologies capable of countering hybrid threats like GPS spoofing, along with inter-country intelligence sharing and coordination of naval presences to expand the combined footprint of European and Gulf militaries and avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts. The European Union’s Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP) initiative represents a good foundation to build upon in this context.
Beyond combatting threats to stability in the maritime domain at sea, however, discussants highlighted the significance of preventive measures taken on land. Participants emphasised the importance of Saudi Arabia adopting a leadership role in strengthening states along the Red-Sea littoral, an endeavour that increased cooperation with the EU could support. In this regard, collaborative efforts to disrupt supply lines for non-state armed groups, especially by building the capabilities of local coast guards, represent a low-hanging fruit – particularly if existing initiatives like the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen (UNVIM) are prioritised.
More broadly, deeper Saudi-German cooperation, coordination, conceptualisation, and implementation of jointly funded projects in the field of international development represent worthwhile endeavours to pursue. As the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent call for “new alliances, for instance with the Gulf states” demonstrates, this argument has started to gain traction in the political mainstream. The translation of this idea into practice constitutes a promising avenue for increased EU-GCC partnership to protect shared interests and promote shared actions in maritime security and beyond.
