The EU, China, and ASEAN Connectivity: 'European Way' Versus Belt and Road Initiative?

The September 2018 publication of both the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy “Connecting Europe and Asia – Building blocks for an EU Strategy” (European Commission 2018) outline the various dimensions of how the European Union (EU) plans to connect Europe with Asia and how to improve connectivity within Asia. The connectivity strategy is not least an answer to China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an enormous unregulated Eurasian infrastructure diplomacy project that has enabled China to become perceived as the EU’s systemic rival. Connectivity is a crucial new concept in the EU’s economic diplomacy towards Asia. Previously, connectivity mainly related to the telecommunication sector. Now, connectivity comprises all sorts of infrastructure (like roads, railways, ports, and digital connectivity), but also extends to financial, regulatory and sustainable business practices in transnational supply chains, and also societal “people’s to people’s” connectivity. The EU Commission promotes a ‘European way’ in its new Asia strategy, which emphasizes a sustainable, comprehensive and international rule-based approach. This research question focuses on the last of the three ‘European way’ dimensions, “international rule-based”, to explore the potential of the connectivity strategy regarding the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). While ASEAN governments have become more cautious about China’s BRI, they also represent uneasy partners for the EU’s high-standards connectivity strategy. Is systemic rivalry between the EU and China playing out regards ASEAN, or are there possibilities for coordination towards European standards? This research leans on the concept of hybrid interregionalism. It assumes that for a ‘European Way’ to emerge, the EU must coordinate its policies with like-minded countries both within and as regards ASEAN, and especially with governments that share similar values, agreements and concerns regarding the BRI in the East Asian political economy. Hence, this interregional complexity demands an omnidirectional EU interregional strategy. Due to the very recent dynamics in the global and regional system, there is an opportunity to elaborate on new insights regarding this central research question from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Next to content analysis and literature review, this exploration also plans interviews with policymakers in the EU and Asia as it is a funded project by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.