A European Arms Trade Regime for the Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific, a region to which Europe maintains strong economic ties based on growing mutual trade relations, is a region seething with the potential for violent conflict. This is exemplified by the fact that many of the world’s largest arms recipient countries belong to the region. The arms trade relationship between Europe and the Indo-Pacific is significant in both ways as 22 % of the Indo-Pacific imports came from the EU, and 32% of EU arms exports went to the Indo-Pacific in the last twenty years. So far, EU member states have seen the granting of arms exports licenses as national matters only. We argue, instead, that the EU ought to leverage its collective power by integrating its member states arms exports as a means in its foreign and security policy. Building upon the definition of strategy as the instruments of power, i. e. means, aligned to achieve a political goal, i. e. ends, we identify European arms exports to the Indo-Pacific as a meaningful instrument of power to achieve the political goal manifested in a stable security architecture in the Indo-Pacific, which is in the EU’s best interest. This approach has mostly been neglected when contemplating the EU as a global actor. The European Union as a regulatory superpower would not surprise by connecting arms exports and security partnerships, with requirements to adhere and substantially support international law and justice. We propose formulating arms export criteria based on conditions that foster a stable Indo-Pacific security architecture. While we take into account that EU member states will retain their sovereignty on the granting of arms export licenses, we believe that this strategy can build a European arms trade regime for the Indo-Pacific.