How the EU can tidy up Eurasia’s tangled web of infrastructure projects

From China’s belt and road to India’s Asia-Africa growth corridor, there is wasteful duplication and rising geopolitical tension

The EU should aim to unite nations under a connectivity code of conduct, expand a common umbrella of finance and set up a forum for the private sector and civil society to talk about connectivity

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at an EU-Asia Connectivity forum in Brussels on September 26. The EU says its connectivity strategy is sustainable and avoids debt traps and environmental impact. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 6 Oct 2019Updated: 9:00pm, 6 Oct 2019

Resurrecting the dream of an interconnected Eurasia is enticingly strategic and fiercely geopolitical. It is also very complicated.

There is no doubt that the world needs sustainable infrastructure and that building these links, whether in transport, energy or digital networks, require lots of money. Asia alone needs to invest US$26 trillion from 2016-2030 to maintain growth, eradicate poverty and tackle climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank.

But connectivity is also the new geopolitical Great Game, pitting nations with competing visions of Eurasia against each other, prompting fears of new conflicts or the re-emergence of old ones.

China, which launched its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, is not alone in projecting its connectivity ambitions. Asean launched its master plan for connectivity in 2010. Japan, India and Europe, as well as Russia and the United States, are working hard to further their own connectivity agendas at home and in Asia and Africa.

But these initiatives, instead of encouraging synergy and cooperation, are adding strain to an already tense geopolitical environment. That is why it is time to multilateralise connectivity.

Infrastructure networks should be coherent, interoperable, and financially and environmentally sustainable. Calls for tenders should be open and transparent. There needs to be better governance, more coordination and increased exchanges – and agreements on norms and standards, labour conditions, sustainability criteria and transparency requirements.