There will be plenty to discuss at Thursday’s meeting in Istanbul of European Union foreign ministers with their Turkish counterpart: not just Turkey’s stalled accession talks but the ostensible turn eastwards of Ankara’s foreign policy, the Financial Times reads.

There are those who perceive a contradiction in EU candidate and Nato member Turkey’s facing east and west at the same time. The neo-Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not among them – and it may have a point.

To begin with, Turkey has a clear interest in fostering stability in its near east and south-east. So, for that matter, does the EU.

To be clear, the expansion of Turkish influence, including with Syria and Iran, is not just about stability. Turkey is reasserting itself as a regional power, and trying to demonstrate it has alternatives to the EU, where France, Germany and Austria seem intent on slamming the door in its face.

If this demonstration highlights the strategic value of having Turkey inside the union, the contrasting feebleness of the EU’s efforts in the region – Europe’s turbulent backyard – and the creative use of “soft power” in action, then it could be salutary and worthwhile.

Turkey has not just mended fences with Syria, it has flattened them: abolishing visa restrictions. In 1996 Ankara was suspected of planting bombs in Damascus, for harbouring Kurdish separatists. It has also embraced post-war Iraq, which it had threatened to invade, also over the perceived threat from the Kurds. It has started to address the rift with Armenia, over the mass-murders of Armenians in the dying years of the Ottoman empire, and started devising the first real policy of reconciliation with its own Kurdish minority.

It has also fallen out with Israel over Gaza, and cosied up to Iran, where Mr Erdogan said the west is treating the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme “unfairly”.

Yet, the turn east – seen by some as neo-Ottoman – is driven by interests more than ideology. Trade with the Middle East is fast expanding to take up the slack of the EU downturn, while Turkey wants to become a hub for energy from the Caspian and Egypt.

Overall, the EU should be positive about this. Turkey is the most successful country in the region, with a big foot in Europe. The ability of its secular republic to accommodate (so far) a governing party with Islamist roots, and simultaneously carry out a constitutional revolution, mesmerises the most dynamic sectors of Arab society. That is surely an asset for Europe, and for the broader Middle East.