The recent Paris forum was the first step towards implementing the EU’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific. Given China and Russia’s alliance, Europe must ensure it continues to build up its influence in the region.
Asia’s three largest powers all have a stake in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. China hopes to change the global order, Japan aims to resist this effort, and India is eager not to alienate Russia or the West.
Beijing and Moscow are unlikely to rush to each other’s aid during a military escalation, be it in Ukraine or over Taiwan. But the enabling environment of their mutual diplomatic support matters greatly.
Japan supports an open, free, and secure internet, as well as the application of international norms to state activities in cyberspace. The country should be the primary focus of EU efforts to develop a shared cyber-security agenda in the Indo-Pacific.
The best security guarantees for the EU’s sea lines of communication lie in the convergence between its interests and those of India and the United States
China is pressuring EU companies to cease trading with Lithuanian firms. This is a critical moment for the European Union – it should build up defences for its internal market and protect member states and companies from political coercion.
China’s economic support for Iran in recent years encouraged Tehran to come back to the negotiating table. Instability in the Middle East is as little in Beijing’s interests as it is in the West’s.
The Gwadar protests are more than just a story of manipulation of the food insecurity and frustrations of the local population. They also illustrate the failure of an economic development strategy based on fallacies.
In the coming decades, the question of who sets the global rules, standards, and norms guiding technology, trade, and economic development will be paramount. Having lost their exclusive prerogative in this domain, some Western governments have begun to rethink the universality of the rules-based order.
The EU and the US lack a shared strategy for tackling economic coercion involving critical raw materials, and it could increase transatlantic competition during severe supply disruptions