“I look forward to deepening our partnership—from security and defense to innovation,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen posted on X following her phone conversation with Singapore’s PM Lawrence Wong in mid-April. Additionally, the European Commission President indicated interest in “exploring closer trade cooperation with the wider region,” adding the hashtag #CPTPP.
The Indo-Pacific free trade agreement, or CPTPP, covers a variety of sectors and unites twelve countries, including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. While the UK has recently joined the trade club, the EU’s membership in the CPTPP seems to be facing challenges so far.
Meanwhile, the EU has immense interest in the Indo-Pacific, which, with its fast-growing economies and strategic waterways, is vital for international commerce. Not to mention the fact that Japan, China, South Korea, and India are among the EU’s top ten export and import partners.
On the flip side, the Indo-Pacific is struggling with security challenges, including the threat emanating from North Korea and tensions in the South China Sea. Add to this the boundary disputes between India and Pakistan fueled by the recent deadly terror attack in Kashmir, and it is even easier to imagine the scope of potential conflicts.
All this together makes it vital for the EU to develop a coordinated strategy for the Indo-Pacific.
A significant step was made in 2021 with the EU embracing a strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The document promotes a rules-based security architecture in the region and suggests the EU’s efforts to strengthen its footprint there. However, member states still play a major role in how the strategy is implemented.
A bilateral approach still prevails
For now, the EU has a number of bilateral agreements with the key Indo-Pacific countries. In 2019, the European Union and Japan agreed on partnership in such areas as machinery and agri-food, something that emerged as the EU’s largest bilateral agreement. One year later, Brussels concluded with Vietnam its first comprehensive agreement with a developing ASEAN state.
The key Asian partners include like-minded nations that share values and have strong trade with the EU and are often allies of the US, according to Jonas Parello-Plesner, Executive Director at the Copenhagen-based Alliance of Democracies.
“It would be Japan, first and foremost,” he told this author. “It would be South Korea, Indonesia, and some of the Southeast Asian countries. Vietnam, even though it falls outside in terms of values. And on trade, the EU has been working to expand its number of free trade agreements in the region. I think that will be ramped up in this period to show a kind of counterweight to President Trump’s tariffs.”
In November, Japan and the EU unveiled a security and defense partnership agreement, which was characterized as a “historical and very timely step.” The new partnership envisages naval cooperation, including port calls and joint exercises, as well as considering initiatives such as information sharing on the defense industry.
Seoul successfully cooperates with Brussels through both bilateral and multilateral frameworks. Over the last 14 years, South Korea and the EU have removed customs duties on almost 99% of products as well as eliminated non-tariff barriers to the exports of electronics, pharmaceuticals and automobiles.
With its advanced defense industry, South Korea is a valuable partner for the EU to jointly develop military equipment and share technologies. On April 23, South Korea’s arms procurement chief, Seok Jong-gun, met with his European counterpart, Andrius Kubilius, in Brussels in an effort to expand cooperation in the defense industry.
Earlier in April, Bangladesh announced its plans to ink a partnership and cooperation agreement with the EU that will bring relations between the two sides to the next level. Scheduled to be signed this summer, PCA envisages cooperation spanning from trade, investment, and fisheries to democracy, cybersecurity and defense.
Addressing maritime security threats
The oceans and seas of the Indo-Pacific pose multiple security challenges ranging from piracy, terrorism and illegal fishing to territorial claims and disputes. The EU, for its part, can play a greater role in promoting freedom of navigation and a rules-based order in the region. And yet, a whole-of-EU approach is lacking.
“Maritime security is extremely important, both in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” said Parello-Plesner. “France, in particular, does what can be labeled a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea, sailing around reefs claimed and artificially expanded by the Chinese to demonstrate that international maritime law does not confer such rights. Beyond that, the EU could do more on maritime law, confidence building, and more support for the smaller neighbours in the South China Sea, such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
“Right now there is a lot of uncertainty because of Trump,” he continued. “You have some voices in the EU saying that we should rather try to be closer to China. These are minority voices, but still,” the expert explained. “My thinking is that, now, some of these agendas have been crowded out by Trump’s tariff agenda, the question of EU defense and Ukraine.
“China will try and position itself as Europe’s friend and a champion for free trade (incorrectly) and see if the EU would be open to that,” Parello-Plesner predicted. “My diagnosis is that it would be the wrong turn. The EU took a steadily tougher China policy from 2019 onwards not because of the US or Trump but because of its own analysis of security interests …. There will be an EU-China summit at some point, and probably the one with Japan, and let’s see how this will play out.”
Competencies matter
Another obstacle that the EU faces on its way to closer cooperation with the Indo-Pacific is the lack of a regional organization that could act as a full-fledged negotiator. ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is considered to be Asia’s most successful grouping. Still, it is just an intergovernmental organization compared with the supranational nature of the EU.
“There has always been a wish to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN,” Parello-Plesner said. “The reality is that ASEAN is so much smaller and more of an umbrella organization than the EU. For example, the EU really has the power to negotiate when it comes to trade for all the member states.”
“The EU is probably the world’s enhanced form of regional cooperation with a huge pooling of sovereignty, particularly in the trade area,” he said. “If you look at free trade agreements, originally, there was a plan that the EU should negotiate with ASEAN, but that was scrapped for negotiating with the countries individually.”
“The question is how much you can drive region-to-region cooperation through the EU because there is not a partner in Asia that is as strong and has the same competences,” the expert explained.
