Europe Rediscovers the Indo-Pacific… Xi Jinping and Joe Biden / David CAMROUX

Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration: Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads

Europe Rediscovers the Indo-Pacific… Xi Jinping and Joe Biden
David CAMROUX, SciencesPo, Honorary Research Fellow, Center for International Studies (CERI), Paris

It was the German General K Haushofer, in his Geopolitik des Pazifischen Ozeans (1924) who created the denomination ‘Indo-Pacific’. A century later, in October 2020, the German Foreign Ministry framed its Asia policy guidelines as directed towards an Indo-Pacific region. As is often the case, it was its French counterpart which had paved the way publishing in mid 2018 a policy paper on an inclusive Indo-Pacific region. On November 2020, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined the chorus with its own Indo-Pacific policy paper. Finally, on 19th April 2021 the European Union published its “EU Strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific”. A definitive version should be adopted by the European Commission and the Parliament in Fall. As for the UK, since Brexit, promoting a Global Britain involves a “very British tilt towards the Indo-Pacific”. Referring to these various policy documents and present European foreign relations practice, my paper has two purposes. Firstly, to contextualize diverse European views of the Indo-Pacific in relation to domestic considerations. Secondly, to situate strategies within a larger multilateral and geopolitical environment, in particular, Sino-American rivalry. I raise the issue as to whether EU-ASEAN relations will become a casualty in the new European pan-regional orientation.

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Session 4 / Geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific : The Intersecting Interests of Other Major Powers
Chair : Dr. Claire, Thị Liên TRẦN, IRASEC/Univ de Paris

These last 15 years, other great powers have redefined their strategy in the region, replacing the concept of Asia-Pacific to the one of Indo-Pacific. Indeed, the region involves the intersecting interests of two other major powers - Japan and the United States - and significant middle players – Australia and South Korea as well as Western players – the European Union and Russia. The session intends to highlight their perspectives on the Indo-Pacific definition, with the aim to manage the China’s rise in the regional order. How did these great powers, which have dominated the Asia-Pacific era, reposition themselves in this new Indo-Pacific architecture. How do they manage their influencing diplomacy and partnership building, as well as their strategical and security priorities ? Will the region’s future be dominated by competition or develop in a more cooperative way in this growing economic and strategic super-region connecting two oceans ?

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“Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration : Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads” is an international conference organized by The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC-CNRS) with the ASEAN Studies Center (Chulalongkorn University) in Bangkok, and the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), RIS in New Delhi.
8-9 July 2021 - Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok