European countries are increasingly involved in the US Indo-Pacific strategy, although in general most European countries remain in a ‘strained’ position in the system of relations with the second world power.
On Europe’s general policy in the IPR
Thus, the European Parliament became the fourth (after the parliaments of the Netherlands, Australia and the US Congress) to intervene on a highly sensitive issue concerning one of the main foreign trade and economic partners of all the countries of the continent. Moreover, this problem is territorially located on the other side of the globe from Europe. It is highly doubtful that such a demarche would be approved by the voters of the parliamentarians if they were asked for their opinion on this topic.
This act confirms Europe’s adherence to the trend of shifting the center of world events to the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR). It is here that the second global power is located, towards which the Europeans have launched a very unfriendly attack.
Europe’s increased interest in the region began to take shape in the second half of the 2010s. In April 2021, it took shape in the form of the EU Council’s ‘Strategy for Cooperation in the IPR’. Given that the region accounts for about 40% of the EU’s total external trade, other ‘specialized’ documents of the Union also have an impact on the political course in relation to individual countries of the region.
The European Economic Security Strategy, adopted in the summer of 2023, stands out among them. Its traces can be detected in recent restrictive EU measures on certain goods supplied by China. This applies first and foremost to electric cars and their batteries, and to the access of Chinese companies to the European market of services in the field of advanced communication systems. There are also obstacles to Chinese companies acquiring the most state-of-the-art technological achievements of the Europeans themselves.
However, the problem of ‘economic security’, as interpreted by the Brussels bureaucracy, is increasingly weighing on the economies of the leading European countries. Some of them are beginning to answer (each in its own way and without much reference to Brussels) the question of ‘what is good and what is bad’ in their relations with the outside world and, above all, in the Indo-Pacific Region.
The fact of taking restrictive measures against China owes much to the continuing military-political alliance of most European countries with the United States and the need to take Washington’s interests into account in this matter. This is undoubtedly the main reason for the military activation of the continent’s leading countries.
On the military presence of Europeans in the IPR
Virtually any European military expedition to the Indo-Pacific Region is unlikely to have a significant impact on the emerging ‘balance of power’ in this region. The comparison of the already modern (but rapidly developing) military potential of China, India, and Japan with any of the leading European countries can serve as an illustration. Why engage in pointless saber-rattling? It will not bring about the necessary level of coordination between European countries.
The European military presence in the IPR is already beginning to take on the character of a ridiculous farce. Slipper-clad Houthis threatened two German Navy ships returning home after a tour of the ‘China Seas’. The whole ‘tour’ had to be dramatically extended to include a route around the African continent. One can imagine how much additional fuel (and, consequently, ‘greenhouse gases’ were released into the atmosphere), engine resources, etc. were used. Meanwhile, the whole action was the same saber-rattling, including an element of ‘sticking out the tongue’ at Beijing in the Taiwan Strait. The purpose of this endeavor remains completely unclear.
Italy avoided this temptation, whose aircraft carrier had also travelled for several months through the same expanses of the Indian and Pacific Oceans with the same confused purpose. Apparently, the only significant outcome of this event was a ‘hole’ in the country’s national budget.
France has decided to send its aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, on a tour of the same region, a move that has already met with an understandable reaction in China. It is to be hoped that the French ships will not follow the German vessels, which traveled through the Taiwan Strait, on their way home. The late French President Charles de Gaulle, whose name the aforementioned aircraft carrier bears, would probably have shrugged his shoulders at the actions of his successors.
It is high time for Europeans to forget about this ‘gunboat diplomacy’ nonsense as totally inconsistent with their current position on the world stage.
They should be glad to be rid of the ‘white man’s burden’, because the leading European countries are now of undoubted interest to any external partner in completely different areas. First of all, in the field of trade and economic co-operation. There should be no problems in gaining access to various types of ‘rare earths’ in the IPR (and generally in the countries of the ‘Global South’), which are essential for the modern high-tech industry. This is one of the issues addressed in the aforementioned ‘European Economic Security Strategy’.
All they have to do is behave decently: avoid unnecessary military demonstrations and playing one partner off against the other in the IPR, and contribute in every possible way to the resolution of problems between them. Only then will the leading players in the IPR solve, for example, the ‘Houthi problem’ themselves, without ‘help’ from outside. And, most likely, without any shooting.
Recent contacts with the leadership of the PRC
The Europeans have managed to combine all these military exercises, which send an obviously, to put it mildly, unfriendly message towards the PRC with quite positive signals addressed to the same Beijing. This has taken the form, first and foremost, of a continuous series of trips to China by the leaders of individual European countries, as well as by the EU leadership itself. In October, the Prime Minister of Slovakia and the President of Finland went there. The arrival of the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, whose relations with China have been rather poor in recent years, is expected. The guests are always received and negotiated with by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other representatives of the country’s leadership.
And these are not just courtesy visits, since during the business meetings attempts are being made to somehow resolve the problems in Sino-European relations. And these problems, if we do not take into account the politicized activity of European parliamentarians on the Taiwan issue, are currently concentrated in the area of bilateral trade.
Another thing is that so far these problems have not yet been resolved in the format of the aforementioned negotiations. So, in the end, Beijing was forced to turn to the WTO to challenge the validity of the EU’s latest restrictive trade measures against China.
Nevertheless, it is better to endure WTO litigations than to engage in saber-rattling in the Taiwan Strait.
Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
