EU-China security cooperation may appear tenuous and of little significance when seen next to the massive amount of trade and other forms of economic cooperation between the two sides. Nevertheless, it is a topic of steadily rising importance because economic and security concerns are becoming increasingly intertwined. Moreover, while the escalation of North Korean missile launches present challenges to EU-China security relations, the 'America First' policy introduced by President Trump arguably also presents new reasons and opportunities for security relations between the two partners. On the other hand, the EU and China have very different attitudes to key principles of inter-state relations such as state sovereignty, non-intervention and the territorial integrity of states. While this does not exclude cooperation on military matters altogether between the EU and China, it does put the emphasis more strongly on cooperation in the non-traditional aspects of security, where both the EU and China may perceive common treats and desire a common response, for example with regard to counter-terrorism and climate. The aim of the paper is therefore to explore the extent to which the two partners not only express similar threat concerns, or make declarations about joint responses, but also adopt concrete measures in the pursuance of security cooperation, both at the bilateral and the multilateral or global level.
