Series: Guarding the Maritime Commons

Partners and Avenues for European Engagement in Indo-Pacific Maritime Security

How should Europe strengthen its engagement with the Indo-Pacific? While the continent is highly dependent on trade from the region, it has limited capabilities to protect its interests in the face of growing Sino-American competition. This new HCSS report examines how European states can engage in the Indo-Pacific by deepening cooperation with regional powers.

The Indo-Pacific comprises many actors, which are positioned along key chokepoints and share geopolitical and geoeconomic interests in protecting crucial sea lines of communication with Europe. This report does two things to establish pathways for deeper European engagement with Indo-Pacific states:

• Based on relevance for maritime security and political affinity with European countries, it assesses the suitability of regional states as partners. Besides the usual suspects Australia, Japan and South Korea, it identifies an “inbetweener” group of countries, with whom cooperation can be fruitful but is not guaranteed, and states with whom engagement is unlikely to yield beneficial results.
• It then zooms in on the “inbetweeners” to determine pathways for deepening ties. By comparing bilateral relations between different European and Indo-Pacific states along security, trade and investment, and capacity-building and infrastructure, the authors identify relative strengths and weaknesses of European states. Finally, they also contrast Europe’s involvement with that of China and the United States.

Based on the analysis, the report recommends to strengthen European collaboration with more ambivalent Indo-Pacific states, with a focus on trade and investment and capacity-building in the short- to medium-term.

Authors:

Paul van Hooft, Benedetta Girardi and Alisa Hoenig - The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies: Europe and the Indo-Pacific Hub (EIPH)

Other contributors: 

Giovanni Cisco 

How secure is European maritime trade with the Indo-Pacific? Sea lines of communication between the two regions pass through several chokepoints. This new HCSS report by Benedetta Girardi, Paul van Hooft and Giovanni Cisco traces their role in global supply chains, and offers practical recommendations to enhance maritime security.

The report is published by the HCSS Europe and the Indo-Pacific Hub (EIPH), and part of the series Guarding the Maritime Commons.

Authors:

Benedetta Girardi, Paul van Hooft, Giovanni Cisco. With contributions by Alisa Hoenig.

A Dutch case study to bolster European action

The European Union’s Global Gateway investment agenda is gaining traction and political support across the EU bloc, including in the digital domain. This shift in attitude has to be supported by concrete action from member states in identifying their own strengths, as well as local needs in countries of the Global South, as the Netherlands is seeking to do. A key challenge for European players in strengthening their offers to countries of the so-called ‘Global South’ is to know and to act on local needs, engaging with partner countries that also wish to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the digital and data-driven economy. This Policy Brief presents the findings of such a matchmaking exercise, specifically between Dutch digital strengths and local needs in the digital domain in Kenya, Egypt and Vietnam. Hard infrastructure, which is the focus of the EU Global Gateway so far – forms the base of any digital transformation. Building on this, EU member states can offer opportunities in sought-after (sectoral) applications – such as in education, health, agriculture, FinTech or manufacturing – that lay the foundation of an open, inclusive and secure digital domain. Complementing the matchmaking exercise, new (financial) instruments are needed to deliver on the scale of digital needs and interests of partner countries.

Authors

Alexandre Ferreira Gomes, Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Maaike Okano-Heijmans, Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Towards better understanding of local needs

The digital needs and interests of emerging economies in the Global South remain largely obscure to the EU and most EU member states that wish to strengthen engagement in this important domain by way of the Digital Global Gateway. Strengthened engagement with emerging economies will serve partner countries’ development, and at the same time contribute to European companies’ competitiveness and the spread of liberal digital norms such as openness, transparency and privacy. Exploring the digital needs of three partner countries – namely Kenya, Vietnam and Egypt – this Policy Brief highlights areas for cooperation. A key basic need is hard infrastructure, to which the EU Global Gateway investments are now starting to respond. In order to reap the full benefits of such infrastructure, partner countries are also keen to cooperate on cybersecurity solutions, improving digital skills and digitising micro, small and medium enterprises. Equally important are sectoral solutions – such as in agriculture, digital finance, public transportation, e-government, education and health – that help emerging economies to develop in a secure, inclusive enabling digital environment.

Authors

Alexandre Ferreira Gomes, Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Maaike Okano-Heijmans, Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

An initial inquiry

This Policy Brief explores the status of Global Gateway’s digital projects and initiatives, and identifies four digital strengths through which the Netherlands can contribute to this EU initiative. The Netherlands boasts remarkable economic strength and a strong track record in developing innovative solutions in AgriTech, FinTech, Cybersecurity and Data Centres. Enhanced engagement with emerging economies in these four fields will serve not only partner countries’ development, but will also contribute to the competitiveness of European companies and the spread of liberal norms such as openness, transparency and privacy in the digital domain. As such, Dutch contributions to the digital Global Gateway will contribute to concrete and useful solutions for partner countries that harness digitalisation for sustainable and secure economic development. Second, they will unlock new markets for Dutch companies operating in these sectors. Finally, they will strengthen the EU’s value proposition to third countries, complementing the current Global Gateway focus on hard infrastructure.

The authors

Alexandre Ferreira Gomes, Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Maaike Okano-Heijmans, Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Paper series - Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub

Why should Europe guard the Indo-Pacific maritime commons: Order, Access, or US hegemony?

E uropeans face difficult choices in the Indo-Pacific as the Sino-American competition intensifies and the multilateral order that protects the freedom of the seas is under threat. In this brief we argue that Europeans need to more clearly formulate their objectives and develop policies based on a realistic view of their capabilities before embarking on a long-term commitment.

The authors

Paul van Hooft & Tim Sweijs - The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS)

Paper series - Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub

A Man-of-War is the Best Ambassador: European Naval Deployments as Costly and Useful Diplomatic Signals

By the slow-moving standards of international diplomacy, the relatively recent term “Indo-Pacific” has gone viral. Conceived as a hopeful expansion of Japanese strategic aims and adopted by the Trump Administration for its increasingly confrontational approach to China, multiple European states have now developed “Indo-Pacific” strategies.

This brief argues that even modest navies—almost uniquely among foreign policy tools— can effectively perform diplomacy when used thoughtfully and judiciously by civilian political leaders.

Paper series - Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub

The French Strategy for the Indo-Pacific and the issue of European cooperation

P resident Macron’s speech at the Garden Island naval base in Australia in May 2018 was a major milestone towards the integration of the Indo-Pacific concept in the French national and international policies. France’s orientation in the Indo-Pacific region is therefore consistent with its global strategy: to act as a balancing power able to promote stability and peace in the context of growing tensions and global re-armament.

The authors

Nicolas Mazzucchi

Edited by Paul van Hooft - The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS)

Paper series - Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub

The EU’s Naval Presence in the Indo-Pacific: What Is It Worth?

Recent years have seen an unprecedent concentration of European interest – and warships – in the Indo-Pacific. This development reflects the growing ambition of Brussels to contribute to the volatile regional maritime security environment, marked by an increasing naval build-up, China’s maritime expansionism and lasting sovereignty disputes. What has been the scope and focus of their presence and to what effect?

This paper looks at the rationales and specificities of the naval deployments of France, Germany and the Netherlands in the Indo-Pacific in the context of Brussels’ recent official tilt towards the region in 2021.

Paper series - Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub

Towards a Sustainable and Meaningful European Naval Presence in the Indo-Pacific Region: A Southeast Asian Perspective

2021 was a bumper harvest year for European naval presence in the Indo-Pacific. Given the extant uncertainties surrounding the war in Ukraine that could cast doubts in the Indo-Pacific about the durability of this presence, this paper proposes maintaining the status quo of European powers flying their national flags while representing a general form of European naval presence in the Indo-Pacific at least for the time being.

The authors

Collin Koh

Edited by Paul van Hooft - The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS)