European strategic interests in the Middle East
In recent decades, the Middle East Region has become the epicenter of the struggle between the world's leading powers to establish strategic control over it. Speaking about the geostrategic attractiveness of the Middle East, it is safe to assume that it is dictated not only by its unique natural resource potential. From the beginning of the Cold War until its end, the Middle East was one of the most "hot spots" in the world. Superpowers have fought for influence in the Middle East, putting serious pressure on direct participants in international relations within the region. After the end of the Cold War, and because Russia no longer had such an influential position in the international arena as the USSR once had, European countries are rapidly returning to the Middle East region, but no longer as separate states, but as the European Union — the only force capable of competing or, for the opportunity or necessity, cooperating with other countries [4].