Debating EU Enhanced Naval Presence in the Indo-Pacific

From Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) to Coordinated Maritime Presence (CMP)

The Indo-Pacific is an increasingly important region for global security, but also an arena for geopolitical contestation. Due to its trade and economic interests, as well as broader concerns about the international order, Europe has high stakes in the Indo-Pacific. While France and Great Britain are traditionally the only European states with a significant maritime presence in Asia, the European Union as a whole has, therefore, increased its maritime engagement in recent years. However, European states continue to face obstacles and constraints in expanding their maritime power. The EU has so far been successful in facilitating, among others, information exchange in the Indo-Pacific through Maritime Domain Awareness and the Coordinated Maritime Presence. Its efforts remain largely focused on the Western part of the region. This paper analyses what Europe hopes to achieve in the Indo-Pacific, which challenges it faces, and what it is currently doing and can do further to contribute to maritime security.

Author: 

Marianne Peron Doise, Associate Research Fellow at IRIS, head of the Indo-Pacific Geopolitical Observatory