New decade for Europe-China relations
By Shada Islam |
chinawatch.cn |
Updated: 2020-08-04 15:08
The new decade has got off to a sobering start for the European Union, which faces Brexit, tense exchanges with the United States over trade and technology, and growing public demands to step up its game on tackling the climate crisis.
And then there is the less publicized but equally important story of the evolving Europe-China relations. In many ways, 2020 looks set to be a defining year for EU-China ties.
There will be two summits: one scheduled for March or April, and another one that will be a high-level special 27+1 Europe-China summit hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in September.
That's not all. There will also be a separate 17+1 summit meeting between China and Central and Eastern European countries, including Greece and the Western Balkan nations.
EU and Chinese policymakers will also meet for an array of high-level meetings, including on trade and investments, connectivity and the climate crisis.
Such contacts are important, especially at a time of increased geopolitical volatility. They are an important sign that the EU still sees Beijing as a strategic partner in key areas, including trade.
But meetings and photo opportunities are not enough. To anchor and reinforce their relations, Europe and China need find common ground on three key issues: clinching a bilateral agreement on promoting and protecting investments; multilateralizing connectivity initiatives; and cooperation on dealing with the climate crisis and shoring up the increasingly fragile multilateral rules-based order.
Working together to defuse the geopolitical tensions between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be important. Collaboration on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and working together in Africa are other possible new areas of cooperation.
What are the prospects for investments, connectivity and climate crisis cooperation?
First, investments. The official line is that negotiations on a first-ever EU-China Bilateral Investment Treaty will be concluded by the end of 2020, allowing both sides to－perhaps－consider taking the first steps to start discussions on a free trade agreement.
It is not that easy, however. EU trade officials insist that when it comes to clinching an investment deal it will be a question of "substance over timing" and that negotiations on the nuts and bolts of the investment treaty are painstakingly slow.
Second, connectivity. The EU has come up with its own Eurasian Connectivity Strategy which sets out a set of norms for the sustainability of the myriad connectivity projects currently being discussed in both Europe and Asia.
Ideally, the EU standards could become the basis of a multilateral rule book for connectivity, thereby ensuring that connectivity is about cooperation rather than competition.
This could and should go hand in hand with a commitment to bolster an increasingly fragile multilateral rules-based trade order, embodied by the World Trade Organization.
Third, the EU and China should formalize a "climate partnership "to ensure that they remain in sync on a question which remains a top priority for European public opinion.
The coming decade will be marked by increased geopolitical competition. The question that Europe and China have to ask themselves is simple: Will their competition be cooperative and benign or not?
If it is to be cooperative and benign, the EU and China will have to accept that their relations are complex and multifaceted, that their interests converge and diverge, that their officials will sometimes agree and that sometimes they will disagree.
More than ever before, the EU faces the challenge of rejecting a false binary choice between the US and China. The era for making binary choices has long gone. Europe has no interest in an economic decoupling from China or starting another Cold War.
In the coming decade, the EU will have to work hard on adopting an independent, autonomous, self-confident stance that reflects European interests, priorities and values.
Competition and cooperation will continue to be the hallmark of EU-China relations. Sporadic feuds will be interspersed with moments of complicity and understanding.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
The new decade has got off to a sobering start for the European Union, which faces Brexit, tense exchanges with the United States over trade and technology, and growing public demands to step up its game on tackling the climate crisis.
And then there is the less publicized but equally important story of the evolving Europe-China relations. In many ways, 2020 looks set to be a defining year for EU-China ties.
There will be two summits: one scheduled for March or April, and another one that will be a high-level special 27+1 Europe-China summit hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in September.
That's not all. There will also be a separate 17+1 summit meeting between China and Central and Eastern European countries, including Greece and the Western Balkan nations.
EU and Chinese policymakers will also meet for an array of high-level meetings, including on trade and investments, connectivity and the climate crisis.
Such contacts are important, especially at a time of increased geopolitical volatility. They are an important sign that the EU still sees Beijing as a strategic partner in key areas, including trade.
But meetings and photo opportunities are not enough. To anchor and reinforce their relations, Europe and China need find common ground on three key issues: clinching a bilateral agreement on promoting and protecting investments; multilateralizing connectivity initiatives; and cooperation on dealing with the climate crisis and shoring up the increasingly fragile multilateral rules-based order.
Working together to defuse the geopolitical tensions between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be important. Collaboration on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and working together in Africa are other possible new areas of cooperation.
What are the prospects for investments, connectivity and climate crisis cooperation?
First, investments. The official line is that negotiations on a first-ever EU-China Bilateral Investment Treaty will be concluded by the end of 2020, allowing both sides to－perhaps－consider taking the first steps to start discussions on a free trade agreement.
It is not that easy, however. EU trade officials insist that when it comes to clinching an investment deal it will be a question of "substance over timing" and that negotiations on the nuts and bolts of the investment treaty are painstakingly slow.
Second, connectivity. The EU has come up with its own Eurasian Connectivity Strategy which sets out a set of norms for the sustainability of the myriad connectivity projects currently being discussed in both Europe and Asia.
Ideally, the EU standards could become the basis of a multilateral rule book for connectivity, thereby ensuring that connectivity is about cooperation rather than competition.
This could and should go hand in hand with a commitment to bolster an increasingly fragile multilateral rules-based trade order, embodied by the World Trade Organization.
Third, the EU and China should formalize a "climate partnership "to ensure that they remain in sync on a question which remains a top priority for European public opinion.
The coming decade will be marked by increased geopolitical competition. The question that Europe and China have to ask themselves is simple: Will their competition be cooperative and benign or not?
If it is to be cooperative and benign, the EU and China will have to accept that their relations are complex and multifaceted, that their interests converge and diverge, that their officials will sometimes agree and that sometimes they will disagree.
More than ever before, the EU faces the challenge of rejecting a false binary choice between the US and China. The era for making binary choices has long gone. Europe has no interest in an economic decoupling from China or starting another Cold War.
In the coming decade, the EU will have to work hard on adopting an independent, autonomous, self-confident stance that reflects European interests, priorities and values.
Competition and cooperation will continue to be the hallmark of EU-China relations. Sporadic feuds will be interspersed with moments of complicity and understanding.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
