European Student Think Tank

EST’s topic of the month focuses on Asia. Also Atlantic Com­munity mem­bers do so in their memo no 36: They aruge that the European Union must make a greater effort to strengthen its polit­ical and dip­lo­matic ties with Asian nations and regional organ­iz­a­tions. What do you think about Atlantic Community’s Memo 36? Tell us your opin­ion.
Atlantic Com­munity Memo 36: Atlantic Com­munity mem­bers and regional experts believe that the European Union must make a greater effort to strengthen its polit­ical and dip­lo­matic ties with Asian nations and regional organ­iz­a­tions. The Asia-Pacific region holds some of Europe’s biggest trad­ing part­ners and rep­res­ents a major theater of world polit­ics in the com­ing dec­ades. EU Pres­id­ent Her­man Van Rompuy recently declared that Europe must “con­tinue deep­en­ing eco­nomic rela­tion­ships” in the region, but Atlantic Com­munity mem­bers and a panel of regional experts argue that Europe’s engage­ment in Asia must go further.

While there was con­sensus that engage­ment in the Asia-Pacific by either Europe or the United States will not dam­age the transat­lantic rela­tion­ship, the EU must fol­low the recent US pivot and develop a strong Asia policy as well, both for the eco­nomic sake of its mem­ber nations and as an agent of sta­bil­ity in the region. As the poten­tial for con­flict over issues like the South China Sea rises, memo con­trib­ut­ors believe the European Union can play a major role in secur­ing a peace­ful Asia. Such sta­bil­ity will be vital to the eco­nomic and stra­tegic interests of both Europe and the United States.

Atlantic Com­munity mem­bers and experts agree that these ambi­tious goals can only be achieved through a united EU for­eign policy, not a mix­ture of dif­fer­ent policies from mem­ber states. There­fore, a coordin­ated, coher­ent for­eign policy for the EU will be needed to imple­ment the fol­low­ing recommendations.

1. Make a firm com­mit­ment to attend key Asian summits.

No pro­gress can be made in Asia until the EU is recog­nized as an import­ant regional part­ner sim­ilar to the United States and Rus­sia. Asian lead­ers saw the EU’s absence from this year’s ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as a sign that Europe is not ser­i­ous about the region (Islam). To emphas­ize that this has changed, the EU must press strongly to be invited to both the East Asia Sum­mit and the Asia-Pacific Eco­nomic Cooper­a­tion (APEC) meetings.

Mak­ing a com­mit­ment to attend the ARF every year is an import­ant first step towards sig­nal­ing an increased interest (van der Putten) but the EU must also reach out to busi­ness lead­ers, aca­dem­ics, and other non-state act­ors in the region to deepen its cred­ib­il­ity (Islam). To increase its case for mem­ber­ship, the EU should also seek out dip­lo­matic and cul­tural exchange part­ners to prove it views Asia as more than just a mar­ket (Cameron).

2. Work with the United States to ensure good rela­tions with China.

Per­haps the most import­ant con­tri­bu­tion the European Union can make to the Asia-Pacific region is in help­ing to dif­fuse ten­sions between the US and China. Beijing per­ceives Europe as a global eco­nomic power but not as hav­ing hege­monic ambi­tions, so the EU can sig­ni­fic­antly ease ten­sions in the region by offer­ing to part­ner with the US in efforts like Free Trade Agree­ments to reas­sure China that they are not US power plays (Becker). Tak­ing an act­ive role as a union in the shap­ing of trade policy will also pre­vent mem­ber states from being split by hav­ing to choose among com­pet­ing US and Chinese frame­works (Odegaard).

3. Estab­lish more bilat­eral ties with major states in the region.

The cur­rent EU engage­ment with Asia focuses almost exclus­ively on ties with regional organ­iz­a­tions to the det­ri­ment of rela­tions with indi­vidual states. The EU must sig­nal to key eco­nomic play­ers like Japan, India, and Indone­sia that it con­siders them import­ant enough to con­struct bilat­eral ties and watch that indi­vidual mem­ber states do not jeop­ard­ize these import­ant rela­tion­ships with com­bat­ive trade policies. Such part­ner­ships will greatly bene­fit the EU’s stand­ing and its abil­ity to garner sup­port and build con­sensus in the region (Cam­roux). The EU should also strive for more bilat­eral trade agree­ments to cre­ate eco­nomic allies in the region (Ogden).

4. Sup­port the US by assum­ing more respons­ib­il­ity in Europe’s neighborhood.

Cred­ible European secur­ity com­mit­ments to neigh­bor­ing areas provide the US with “stra­tegic depth” to tackle poten­tial chal­lenges in Asia (Becker). The US and the EU have com­mon secur­ity interests in the Asia-Pacific, and while Europe will not provide much dir­ect sup­port that far from home, it can free up US resources by assum­ing a primary respons­ib­il­ity for local flash­points like the Balkans and Medi­ter­ranean. Such cooper­a­tion would also be a power­ful example of US-EU ties and increase their bar­gain­ing power in the region (Ogden).

Related posts:

1. Atlantic Community’s MEMO 33: NATO Part­ner­ships – Strength­en­ing Ties with Asia
   Novem­ber 13th, 2011
2. EST announces cooper­a­tion with “Atlantic Com­munity”
   Novem­ber 13th, 2011
3. Pro­mo­tion of Trade Polit­ics: Test­ing the EU as an Inter­na­tional Actor
   Janu­ary 20th, 2011
4. 2nd Dis­cus­sion Forum: Europe, Obama, and the Pacific
   Novem­ber 23rd, 2012
5. Libya: a last­ing win for European dip­lomacy?
   Octo­ber 4th, 2011