Tehri Hakala, the newly appointed EU Special Representative for Central Asia visited the region in August 2021. What can we expect from her term as EUSR and what are the EU’s priorities in its relations with the region?
Thanks to an uninterrupted presence of Chinese investors in Afghanistan, favored by China’s more welcomed non-interference policy, there seems to be room for a stronger role of Beijing in Afghanistan’s state re-building process. While the Taliban is seeking help from the international community as a whole, and in spite of the fact that the EU is going to disburse a significant amount of money in the form of aid, it is uncertain whether the conditional approach endorsed by the EU will grant it a possible central role in the future of Afghanistan’s development.
Last September Cambodia became the fifth country to ratify RCEP, the biggest trade agreement signed to date. This mega-deal has been met with some skepticism, particularly from unions in Asia, concerned for RCEP’s lack of labour provisions. Meanwhile, through the Indo-Pacific strategy, the EU has compromised at engaging with RCEP signatories and reinforce a rules-based international order.
As the EU is asserting itself as an Indo-Pacific player by working with existing multilateral groupings, it maintains a degree of strategic ambiguity, especially regarding China. While this ambiguous stance may limit cooperation with the Quad on traditional security issues, the Quad and the EU hold the potential to jointly deliver on several, cross-domain transnational issues.
The proposed CBAM policy has been met with vehement opposition from the BRICS countries and major exporters. The EU must engage with its external trade partners to ensure it meets its emissions commitments by 2050. The question is how?
Holding a near monopoly in semiconductor manufacturing, Taiwan should seek to sustain the global supply chain and maintain its “silicon shield”. In particular by expanding its outreach abroad through cooperation with other partners such as the EU.
2020 has presented the planet with a globalised crisis that has put countries to the test worldwide. In these difficult
The 47th G7 Summit was held in Cornwall (UK) from 11-13 June 2021. After a year of unprecedented uncertainty and tragedy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, G7 leaders met to discuss joint actions to fight the spread of the pandemic collectively, stop climate change and help economies recover. They pledged to make 2021 the year of multilateralism’s renaissance.
The Indo-Pacific, lacking all-encompassing security structures such as an “Asian NATO”, is facing rising tensions, including geopolitical rivalries, contested territories and territorial waters. To face this new environment and become strategically autonomous, the Council of the European Union published its EU Strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.