China in EU’s Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

The European Union aims at becoming a key partner of the Indo-Pacific. By emphasising its commitment to act as a global player in what the EU High Representative Josep Borrell has defined “the region of the future”, the EU has begun to lay the foundations for a completely new strategic orientation, and the details for a new “Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific” have been released in September 2021. This choice has been the direct consequence of selected European countries growing economic interdependence within the region, but it is also linked to the need to contribute to the creation of a new multilateral structure potentially able to contain China and, at the same time, to scale down the intense geopolitical competition that is exacerbating the confrontation between China and the United States. Although the European Union does not have a stable geographic presence in the region, the Russian-Ukraine conflict that started in February 2022 has created further room for Brussels to justify its interest and involvement in the region. However, it is still not clear whether the EU wants to play a role in the area as a region or whether it will choose to rely on specific member states, such as France and Germany, to represent European interest in the Indo-Pacific. Both options are problematic: the first one might encounter a huge coordination deficit, the second one might be seen as too personalistic. Representation is not the only challenge the EU has to face in shaping its Indo-Pacific strategy: while defining its position, the EU has still not clarified whether it is ready to embrace a multilateral inclusive framework in which it will maintain an independent position, or whether it prefers to align with the United States, which would run the risk of further deteriorating its own relationship with China.KeywordsEuropean UnionChinaIndo-PacificMultilateralismUnited Kingdom