European militaries ‘will do more to counter assertive China’ in Indo-Pacific
- Naval operations expected to increase to protect freedom of navigation in key trade route amid concerns over China’s island-building and military activities
- EU leaders to discuss 10 proposals to seek balanced relationship with China, while President Xi Jinping is due to travel to Italy and France
European countries will reinforce their presence in the Indo-Pacific, including increased naval operations, to counter China’s assertive activities in the region, analysts and a diplomatic source have said.
The European Union was “already starting to make its mark in the Indo-Pacific”, said Liselotte Odgaard, a visiting senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, at an event on Monday discussing the EU’s role in the region.
She said the EU would have a general policy line such as opposition to China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and support for freedom of navigation, but it could not go further into concrete policy initiatives, which “will be left to groupings of countries to do and that is also what we see increasingly”.
The South China Sea is an important waterway for about US$3 trillion of trade each year – a third of global trade. China claims it has sovereignty over the waters, but is contested by its neighbours, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
China’s island-building and military activities in the South China Sea have raised concerns for the United States and its allies. India is also wary of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean. The EU and some of its members have repeatedly voiced their concerns about Beijing’s island-building and military presence in the disputed South China Sea.