The EU on Saturday offered closer political and investment ties to 20 countries from across the Indo-Pacific region, as the bloc seeks more influence despite growing Chinese and US ambitions.
At a forum that gathered foreign ministers from the EU and the Indo-Pacific, several speakers touted the Global Gateway program, Europe’s answer to China’s massive infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The meeting on Saturday was itself a snub to Beijing, which was not invited.
“Our ambition is to work toward the preservation of the Indo-Pacific as a free, open, prosperous and inclusive region, and to build partnerships between equals,” French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna said in a speech.
Photo: AFP
The EU “refuses to enter a logic of blocs that would make escalation and, eventually, confrontation, inevitable,” she said.
After decades of viewing China primarily as a commercial opportunity, the EU is seeking to boost its footprint in the region and reduce its reliance on imports from the world’s second-biggest economy, including on raw materials critical for the bloc’s green transition.
The EU’s dependence on Beijing, whose leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), has declared a “no limits” friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was laid bare during the COVID-19 pandemic, when countries and companies scrambled to source masks and other equipment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened tensions with the West pressing Beijing to distance itself from Moscow.
The EU first adopted a common strategy on the Indo-Pacific in 2021 pushed by France, which has overseas territories in the area.
Ending Saturday’s forum, whose guests included India, Japan and Indonesia, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said the bloc wants “to step up our engagement to deliver more concrete results on the ground.”
Borrell said the EU would pursue 20 Global Gateway projects in the Indo-Pacific “from investment in hydropower, solar energy plants to transportation infrastructure, railways, ports and airports.”
The EU late last year signed an agreement with Thailand to foster a bilateral dialog on energy, climate change and other issues.
While Colonna did not mention China, she said the Global Gateway strategy was meant to promote “lasting, quality infrastructure projects that don’t put countries in a situation of dependence,” including in the digital sector.
Colonna also said that French frigates would patrol more often in the region.
A French warship patrolled the Taiwan Strait last month, while China conducted military exercises in the area.
France did not invite US representatives last year, but Washington was represented on Saturday.
Paris deems the Indo-Pacific a priority. The region hosts about 1.6 million French citizens and France has a military presence in French overseas islands, including New Caledonia, Wallis-and-Futuna or Mayotte, and 8,000 soldiers.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS