European Union countries view the summit as a way to protect their traditional diplomatic, economic and security interests while China and Russia move to fill a vacuum left by the United States.
Tusk, the president of the European Council who organises summits for EU countries, acknowledged “there are differences between us” but said neighbours had more at stake than distant powers.
“We need to co-operate and not leave it to global powers far from our region,” the former Polish premier told leaders from about 40 countries.
He did not name those powers but an EU source confirmed he meant China and Russia.
China is increasing trade with the region and has established a military base in Djibouti.
Russia militarily backs Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in his civil war.
EU sources said the first EU-Arab summit is all the more important as the United States “disengages” from the region while Russia and China make inroads.
“We don’t want to see this vacuum soaked up by Russia and China,” one of the sources said
The summit in the southern Sinai desert is heavily guarded by Egyptian security forces who are fighting a bloody militant insurgency a short distance to the north.
Tusk issued an appeal for both Arabs and Europeans to “break the business model” of smugglers taking migrants to Europe.
European leaders first mentioned the Arab summit in Austria in September amid efforts to agree ways to curb the illegal migration that has sharply divided the 28-nation bloc.
But checking migration is just part of Europe’s broader strategy to forge a new alliance with its southern neighbours.
A UN official warned that Europe’s failure to bridge divisions on migration “risks blocking all the other discussions” at the summit.
The EU has struck aid-for-co-operation agreements with Turkey and Libya’s UN-backed government in Tripoli, which has sharply cut the flow of migrants since a 2015 peak.
But the UN official said broader co-operation with the Arab League, which includes Libya, is limited without the EU being able to speak in one voice.
British Prime Minister Theresa May held one-to-one talks with Tusk and was due to hold further bilateral meetings with EU leaders as she tries to break the stalemate at home over her divorce agreement with the EU.
Most of the leaders of the 22-member Arab League attended, except for Assad, whose country was suspended from the League over the civil war, and
Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir.
Qatar delegation attends summit
