The amazing world of the Euro-Gulf

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While waiting for the Tube, I see a picture of a gym upstairs. Places? “The city of London. High Street Kensington. Dubai. ” What a shame to choose an unstable position with bad taste and ignorant expats. However, the City and Dubai branches must be first.

Soon after, I will be in Doha, and again the Euro-Gulf connection is inevitable. The Emir of Qatar has returned from a state visit to Britain, where the forces were seeking a trade deal. Switzerland-headquartered Fifa recently awarded Saudi Arabia the rights to host the World Cup. Even in Muscat without skyscrapers, where alleys that could have been measured anywhere else in the Gulf twisted freely behind the corniche, the three restaurants in my hotel are Mayfair outposts.

What a shame the word “Eurabia” has been taken. And for such reasons. (It is a very appropriate word for the so-called project to Islamise Europe.) Because we will need a word for this relationship. The Arabian Peninsula has what Europe lacks: space, natural wealth and the remains of a budget to invest in things. For its part, Europe has the “soft” resources that the Gulf countries must acquire, adopt or imitate to form a post-oil role in the world. This is not a deep connection to the external port. Not when 38 percent of the people in the UAE and a quarter of Qatar are Indians. But it may be the most consistent, if I understand the word correctly.

Of course, the US has a security presence in all six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This includes the Saudi example where Osama bin Laden was largely untouchable. But meeting every day? America takes a 15-hour journey from there. Its soft assets can be hard to buy or not very desirable. Its residents have little financial incentive to live in tax havens, since Uncle Sam charges them at least some of the difference.

It would not take much time for Europe to be exposed to the Gulf aging as badly as it was porousness before Russia.

In the 1970s, when Opec profits were collapsing in London, Anthony Burgess wrote a dystopia in which the big hotels became “al-Klaridges” and “al-Dorchester”. What a shock to even the most secular Europeans to see – we shouldn’t hold this back – non-whites with more money than them. However, they would underestimate the Gulf as not a place for them to live. Half a century later, their descendants would call that kopium. In fact, their descendants may stay there for economic opportunities. (Al-Dorado?) As a banker friend explains, time zones allow you to sleep late, trade European markets, and then eat late, so it’s the young people who do the Gulf stint, not the tired ones extremes of my age. .

However, for how long? It is the great impossibility of this experiment, between the tradition of global rights and monarchist absolutism, between a non-religious continent and a home peninsula of the old faith, that distinguishes it from anything else that I can think of. A relationship can be both important and impossible. It wouldn’t take much – another intra-GCC violence, say, that seemed imminent in 2017 – for Europe’s exposure to the Gulf to age as badly as its openness before Russia. If Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City is found to have committed financial fraud, a piece of Premier League history will be tarnished. Because it’s a “just” game, I feel like people aren’t ready to go back.

And it’s reasonable to think that a relationship can only go one way. It is the Gulf side that has to make the worst cultural changes. Because Europeans associate 1979 with Iran and perhaps with Margaret Thatcher, they sometimes overlook the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by zealots who thought the House of Saud had become too soft on western methods. Governments in this area certainly do not forget.

How much distance can the area release without tripping over the traditional fence (and it is answered differently) in each district, or emirate. Everyone is very nice to “Mr. Janan” at his hotel in Doha. But the metal scanners that must be passed when re-entering the building stand as a reminder of the sticks here. I wonder if Europe and the Gulf are throwing so much at their relationship because of the incredible doubt that it can last.

Email Janan to janan.ganesh@ft.com

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