On 13 September 2023, during her annual State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced the opening of an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China.
The Indo-Pacific region is a key region in terms of maritime geopolitics, security, trade and environmental issues. With China’s rise, increasing tensions over territorial claims and the region’s strategic importance, several European countries, including Germany and France, have implemented comprehensive policies.
Following the recent elections that tilted the Maldives towards a more outspoken pro-China stance, the geopolitical dynamics have been set into motion, presenting a compelling opportunity for the European Union. The changing circumstances opens the Maldives’ burgeoning role in global affairs, paving the way for enhanced collaboration in diplomacy, climate action, and reaffirming its critical importance in the theatre of South Asian politics.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has radically shifted global energy geopolitics, forcing Europe to abandon cheap oil and gas coming from that direction and leaving Russia without one of its most important sources of revenue. Seeking new markets as a result, the Russian state has pivoted to selling its oil and gas to China, fulfilling a longstanding request from the energy-hungry Middle Kingdom, and promising both opportunity and risk to Mongolia.
Floating cables or the pledging of a Dutch warship, these are but the most recent chapters in the story of the South China Sea. As tensions are rising between China and the Philippines, this Op-ed delves into the significance of the South China Sea and possible European responses to the recent occurrences.
On 7 December 2023 the EU and China held their 24th Summit in Beijing. At their first in-person summit since 2019 European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in two separate sessions. Anticipations for the summit’s outcome remained modest due to prevailing challenges in EU-China relations. Despite the low expectations and the lack of a joint statement in conclusion, the summit offered a forum for EU and Chinese leaders to meet face-to-face, discuss topics of key importance and emphasise the need to uphold mutually beneficial relations.
More recent global competition has reignited outer space curiosity, as well as the use of it as an illustration of a country’s competency, capability, and focus. Those States able to reach outer space by their own means demonstrate their power due to the financial strain required. Pushing back the limits of human exploration and establishing such ‘firsts’ conveys prestige and notoriety. The most recent ‘first’ was achieved on 23 August 2023. That day, the Chandayaar-3 mission led to an Indian lander known as Vikram touching down on the Lunar South Pole. There it dispatched its rover, Pragyan. This mission made India the fourth State to land an unmanned probe on the Moon after the US, Russia, and China. Moreover, it made it the first State to reach the lunar south pole.
In the quest to achieve the EU’s ambitious 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target, renewable hydrogen has emerged as a critical element in the green energy transition. Although hydrogen is promising as a clean-burning fuel and energy carrier, its energy-intensive production and high costs pose a challenge for large-scale implementation. China and the EU are key players in the global hydrogen landscape but still primarily rely on fossil-fuel heavy methods of production. As both have released a number of strategic objectives as part of their respective hydrogen strategies, the renewable hydrogen sector is set to change over the next couple of years. The EU’s ambitious targets and China’s strategic goals for the renewable hydrogen sector create an opportunity for collaborative efforts. This EIAS policy brief will explore the chances and challenges for EU-China collaboration in the renewable hydrogen sector, emphasising the fields of fuel-cell technology, electrolyser manufacturing, and renewable energy production and trade.
In 2013 China launched its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which seeks to increase globalisation and connectivity primarily through infrastructure projects. Through these projects, China aims to make economic gains as well as support the host country’s infrastructure, as many of the 150 signatories on the initiative are Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and to close the global infrastructure gap.