Op-ed – EIAS

EU-China Complementarity Reconsidered: Capability Learning, Market Selectivity and the Future of China-EU SME Cooperation

In the China-EU bilateral trade and investment relationship, the SME dimension deserves to be analysed on its own terms. China-EU SME cooperation is no longer a broad story of market entry, cost arbitrage or one-directional technology transfer. It is becoming a more selective, capability-sensitive relationship shaped by sectoral complementarity, financing conditions and the management of regulatory uncertainty.

Planning for the Future: What Does China’s 15th Five-Year Plan Mean for Europe?

On March 12, 2026, China’s National People’s Congress approved the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (the Plan), which serves as the country’s blueprint for the five-year period from 2026 to 2030.

From Connectivity to Compliance: How AI governance can shape EU–ASEAN trade negotiations

As ASEAN advances its digital agenda and AI adoption accelerates across Southeast Asia, regulatory choices are starting to shape trade, investment, and strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. In this environment, the EU can seize the opportunity and promote fruitful partnerships amid ASEAN’s competitive market while positioning its regulatory framework as a driver for cooperation.

New State in the Bloc: Opportunities And Limits for Timor-Leste and ASEAN

Timor-Leste’s accession as ASEAN’s eleventh member in October 2025 marked the end of a fourteen-year accession process and a major milestone in the country’s post-independence foreign policy. While widely celebrated as a symbol of regional inclusion and reconciliation, the membership raises deeper questions about integration, institutional capacity, and ASEAN’s ability to manage persistent development gaps among its members.

Japan at odds again with its own History

Japan has a new Prime Minister and faces challenges both old and new. A comment from an opposition politician led Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to make a statement on a possible commitment from the Japanese Navy to protect Taiwan. The response from China was quick, but the implications for Takaichi are more telling. Will she reposition Japan globally, or be stopped by the same forces that forced Shinzō Abe to halt his ambitions?

A Call for Action: Meditations on the EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy in light of the 4th Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum and AOIP 2025

As the EU’s 4th Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum (IPMF) took place in Brussels on the 20th and 21st of November 2025, the European Union faces a pivotal moment. Despite grand declarations, Brussels’ impact in the region remains constrained by episodic engagement and an overreliance on formal diplomatic channels, notwithstanding efforts to engage with civil society and other relevant stakeholders. How can the EU explore potential alternative channels of diplomacy to establish lasting, practical, and realistic partnerships with its Indo-Pacific partners? By leveraging European expertise as a result of private-sector champions, while simultaneously working together on developing capacity-building initiatives on the ground, the EU may transform its strategy from rhetoric into tangible action and show its partners it is serious about its commitments.

The Joint Communication on a New Strategic EU-India Agenda: Will Brussels and New Delhi Deliver?

The EU’s Joint Communication on a New Strategic EU–India Agenda, released in September 2025, signals a renewed push to elevate India as a core strategic partner. Centred on trade, technology, security, connectivity, and global governance, the agenda reflects shared interests amid growing geopolitical uncertainty. While economic potential and security cooperation are significant, persistent trade barriers and regulatory frictions remain. Its success will hinge on effective implementation, with the partnership offering scope to support international stability and strengthen multilateral cooperation.

India and China Re-engage at the SCO: A Signal of a Shifting Multipolar Order

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) 25th Summit in Tianjin, China, the image of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Narendra Modi clasping hands captured a shifting geopolitical order. Once dismissed as a merely symbolic forum, the SCO is emerging as a platform for financial innovation, technological coordination, and diplomatic thaw—most notably between India and China. Its evolution signals a broader attempt to redefine the architecture of global governance.

Converging Interests of Europe and ASEAN in a (More) Multipolar Global Economy

The 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur took place amid rising geoeconomic uncertainty, reaffirming ASEAN’s commitment to rules-based trade and welcoming Timor-Leste as its 11th member. The meeting was overshadowed by US President Trump’s pursuit of bilateral deals with individual ASEAN states, exposing varying national vulnerabilities to US tariff measures and their economic fallout. In this context, the EU has a key opportunity to strengthen its role as a stable and predictable economic partner, underlineing the opportunity for a deeper ASEAN-EU partnership grounded in predictability, mutual benefit and in respect of ASEAN’s unique regional order.