New Belt, New Road – New Policies? Assessing the Converging EU-China Security Interests

Why do we observe a shift towards convergence in EU-China security interests? For decades contradicting attitudes towards key principles of inter-state and region-to-state relations, including state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and intervention policies have hindered EU-China inter-regional cooperation beyond the economic realm. However, collaboration in peace and security issues is now becoming a key pillar of EU-China relations. For instance, with respect to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an ambitious Chinese foreign policy project, China and the EU have expressed desire to coordinate foreign and security policy issues. Based on this counterintuitive finding, this paper traces the process towards convergence of EU-China security interests. It uses theories of neo-functionalism, inter-regionalism and securitization to expound possible motives for the changing interests in the security realm of China and the EU respectively. Drawing on qualitative text analysis of official Chinese and EU policy papers and documents from the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1975 until today, it assesses the striking change over time and tests the plausibility of the illustrated motives. The results reveal interesting insights into the main drivers towards convergence, such as spillover effects from the economic to the security realm and the securitization of economic themes. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of the findings for further EU-China security cooperation and the possibility of BRI to serve as a platform for such.