Friends is a big word, the EU has a vested interest in getting cheap gas from as many sources as possible at this point and a direct oil and gas pipeline to Europe would definitely be helpful.

Russian presence in Syria prevented this but they're gone now.

In the future we can balance Russian cheap gas with Qatari cheap gas to not be held hostage by either party.

It would be a mistake to build dependencies on China when it's possible to avoid having dependencies at all.