The EU and the Indo-Pacific: Partners for a more stable and prosperous world | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
May 29, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2025
The EU and the Indo-Pacific: Partners for a more stable and prosperous world

Thoughts

Josep Borrell Fontelles
30 January, 2024, 11:15 am
Last modified: 30 January, 2024, 05:14 pm

Related News

  • Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, starting June 1
  • Cross-border assistance work only when individuals are safe on both sides: EU
  • BRAC and EU join forces to support humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar
  • EU urged to open visa centre for Bangladeshis in Dhaka: Home adviser
  • NCP delegation meets with European Union ambassadors, discusses reform agenda

The EU and the Indo-Pacific: Partners for a more stable and prosperous world

The European Union and Indo-Pacific countries have a stake in each other's security and prosperity. The future of Europe, as well as of the international order, is being forged by the developments in the Indo-Pacific, and vice versa

Josep Borrell Fontelles
30 January, 2024, 11:15 am
Last modified: 30 January, 2024, 05:14 pm
Participants pose for a  photo during an EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum. EU and the Indo-Pacific countries must cooperate more closely to enhance their security, prosperity and resilience. Photo: Collected
Participants pose for a photo during an EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum. EU and the Indo-Pacific countries must cooperate more closely to enhance their security, prosperity and resilience. Photo: Collected

At the start of 2024, Europeans are of course deeply concerned by the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and by the conflict that has broken out again in the Middle East. However, we are not forgetting the broader picture: the centre of gravity of the world's economy has shifted to the Indo-Pacific region, with close to 50% of the world's GDP and 60% of the world's population. Peace and stability in this region are crucial for Europe and the world.  

In recent years, the EU has worked steadily to improve its cooperation with the region, in particular by becoming in 2020 a strategic partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), launching its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2021, holding a successful EU-ASEAN Summit in 2022 and adopting the Samoa Agreement with Pacific countries in 2023. We will accelerate the path in 2024.

The economic links between the EU and the Indo-Pacific region have reached an impressive level, unimaginable 40 years ago. Maritime routes in the region have become the arteries of the world: every day 2000 ships transport goods across the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea to Europe and back. However, the security environment is deteriorating. 

Major tensions are rising, from the South China Sea, to the Taiwan Strait, the Korean peninsula and the Red Sea. There is less trust among the main global and regional players; less respect for international law and multilateral agreements; force and coercion are on the rise. We are at risk of going back to a world where "might makes right". 

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The EU intends to counter this trend. Multilateral solutions and regional approaches are in our DNA and we will always defend international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the non-proliferation regime. To defend the rules-based world order, we want to cooperate more closely with our partners committed to multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific region. 

The EU maintains regular security and defence dialogues with China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea and other nations. However, our cooperation increasingly extends beyond dialogue to concrete and operational activities.   

Under our Strategic Partnership with ASEAN, security cooperation is also becoming more and more a major component. We are participating with members of ASEAN in regional navy exercises and the navies of our Asian partners are cooperating with us in Operation Atalanta, near the Horn of Africa. These are good examples of what we can do together. 

To go further, we propose to use our member states' advanced capabilities to become a "smart security enabler," helping to build the capacities of our partners in the region on maritime security, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism and foreign information manipulation and interference. 

We need each other to help stabilise this world. The challenges we are facing do not allow us any other way than to cooperate closely to help avoid conflicts and ensure respect for international law. To protect freedom of navigation, EU member states are already increasing their deployments between the EU and the Indo-Pacific. The region can count on us as a reliable partner.

On the economic side, Russia's aggression against Ukraine has shown us the high cost of the EU's excessive dependency on Russian gas. We are therefore focusing on improving the EU's economic security by reducing this type of excessive dependency. However, this does not mean closing our borders. On the contrary, it should lead to developing our economic ties with many countries in the Indo-Pacific region, in order to de-risk our economy and diversify our supply chains. 

In this context, the EU has recently signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand and negotiations are ongoing with India, Indonesia and Thailand. We are engaging also with Japan, South Korea, Singapore and India to ensure stable and diversified supply chains in the field of digital technologies and have proposed to our Indo-Pacific partners to work together on the sustainable extraction and processing of critical raw materials, necessary for the green and digital transitions.

The EU wants also to cooperate more actively with Indo-Pacific countries towards a green and sustainable future. The Green-Blue Alliance with the Pacific islands is helping to strengthen their climate resilience. 

Together with our G7 partners, we have also agreed Just Energy Transition Partnerships with South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam and the European Investment Bank is already investing €500 million to accelerate Vietnam's green transition in a way that benefits both people and the planet. 

In short, we are well aware of the crucial importance of the EU's engagement with the Indo-Pacific region. We are demonstrating it with a Pacific Day in the European Parliament on 1 February, highlighting our burgeoning cooperation with our Pacific island partners. 

The next day, our third Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum will bring together Foreign Ministers from the region and the EU. We will then hold our biennial EU-ASEAN ministerial meeting. 

In a world of geopolitical turbulence and great power rivalry, these three high-level meetings illustrate the strong and shared interest that the EU and the Indo-Pacific countries have to cooperate more closely in order to enhance their security, prosperity and resilience.


Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.

 

EU / Indo Pacific

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • How termination of USDA-funded trade facilitation project will affect Bangladesh
    How termination of USDA-funded trade facilitation project will affect Bangladesh
  • File photo of Bangladesh Secretariat. Photo: Collected
    Visitors banned from entering Secretariat on Mondays and Thursdays
  • File photo of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Photo: Collected
    Asked for roadmap, govt didn’t give in 10 months, now 'December it is': Mirza Fakhrul

MOST VIEWED

  • Google Pay. Photo: Collected
    Google Pay likely coming to Bangladesh soon
  • Graphics: TBS
    Suspicious banking activities surge by 56% since July: Cenbank
  • Representational image of cable car/Freepik
    Cable car to be installed from Himchari to Reju Khal in Marine Drive Road
  • Illustration: TBS
    Bangladesh sees highest-ever per capita income of $2,820 in FY25, BBS provisional data shows
  • IFIC Bank receives Tk6,000 cr in new deposits in six months
    IFIC Bank receives Tk6,000 cr in new deposits in six months
  • Abdul Awal Mintoo, chairman of National Bank Limited. Sketch: TBS
    'Regulatory support must for National Bank to restore depositors' confidence'

Related News

  • Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, starting June 1
  • Cross-border assistance work only when individuals are safe on both sides: EU
  • BRAC and EU join forces to support humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar
  • EU urged to open visa centre for Bangladeshis in Dhaka: Home adviser
  • NCP delegation meets with European Union ambassadors, discusses reform agenda

Features

In recent years, the Gor-e-Shaheed Eidgah has emerged as a strong contender for the crown of the biggest Eid congregation in the country, having hosted 600,000 worshippers in 2017. Photo: TBS

Gor-e-Shaheed Boro Maath: The heart of Dinajpur

2d | Panorama
The Hili Land Port, officially opened in 1997 but with trade roots stretching back to before Partition, has grown into a cornerstone of bilateral commerce.

Dhaka-Delhi tensions ripple across Hili’s markets and livelihoods

3d | Panorama
Photo: Collected

Desk goals: Affordable ways to elevate your study setup

3d | Brands
Built on a diamond-type frame, the Hornet 2.0 is agile but grounded. PHOTO: Asif Chowdhury

Honda Hornet 2.0: Same spirit, upgraded sting

3d | Wheels

More Videos from TBS

The fight between two brothers; Adidas vs Puma

The fight between two brothers; Adidas vs Puma

1h | Others
Trump is again keen to make Canada the 51st state

Trump is again keen to make Canada the 51st state

3h | Others
Trump's tariff strategy and Europe's investment politics, violence or negotiation?

Trump's tariff strategy and Europe's investment politics, violence or negotiation?

4h | Others
Rumours surrounding the Club World Cup: Which club will Ronaldo join?

Rumours surrounding the Club World Cup: Which club will Ronaldo join?

4h | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net