Judging from Secretary Clinton’s words in Foreign Policy magazine, unless Europe is involved in Asia it will not have a meaningful say in the future of politics. If that is true – and the very fact that US foreign policy is increasingly focusing on Asia is a strong indicator of the region’s importance – the prospects for Europe’s role in the Pacific century are not promising. Although she became the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs nearly two years ago, Catherine Ashton has yet to attend a major multilateral meeting in Asia. Ms. Clinton’s message should be a wake-up call for Europe’s leaders and policymakers: the European Union can and should do much more than it is doing, in order to be seen and heard in the coming decades.
To begin with, it is essential that each year High Representative Ashton attends the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Secretary Clinton envisions a durable transpacific economic and security architecture, in which the US plays a major role. Some of the main building blocks for this transpacific architecture are the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) for economic issues and the ARF for security matters. Recently, with very active participation from the US, two new building blocks have been added on the security side, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus Eight, in addition to the US-China Security & Economic Dialogue, the most influential bilateral mechanism in the Asia Pacific region. Ms. Ashton cannot afford to stay away from the ARF, given that the ARF is the only major transpacific forum of which the EU is a member. Moreover, not attending the ARF severely limits the chances of the EU becoming a member of the East Asia Summit, which is on track to becoming the primary summit for security affairs in the Asia Pacific.
The European Union should also cooperate closely with the United States to strengthen its economic competitiveness. Even though traditionally the US and the EU are economic competitors, they face a common challenge from Asia’s main economic power, China. Competition with China is not limited to rivalry between firms or sectors, but exists also at the level of economic systems. In China the government intervenes in the economy far more directly than is the case in the West. In many instances, this increases the competitiveness of Chinese firms vis-à-vis their Western counterparts. Secretary Clinton indicated that for the US it is of great importance to address this issue and other matters related to China’s state-centered economic system and policies. Washington will be able to do so far more effectively if it works closely with Brussels, and vice versa. Western economies will need to find new strategies to increase their competitiveness without resorting to protectionism or entering into an economic policy stand-off with China.
However, the EU should adopt a neutral stance with regard to US security policy in Asia. The US government seems determined to maintain and strengthen its military role in Asia in order to keep pressure on a rising China, but this strategy is unrealistic at best, given the high costs involved. A worse outcome is that it could lead to regional instability or even an armed conflict; in the long run, American attempts to keep China from becoming a dominant power in East Asia are likely to be futile – as would be Chinese short-term attempts at forcing the US out of the region. According to Henry Kissinger, the US and China should form a Pacific community through co-evolution. This requires Washington to take the psychologically difficult step of accepting Beijing as its equal. Given the very large interest of the EU in transpacific stability, it is important for the EU to act as a neutral but visible observer and commentator on geopolitical stability in Asia. While the EU cannot be a transpacific power, it should strengthen its visibility in this strategically crucial region with a focused and active Asia policy.
Frans-Paul van der Putten is a senior research fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in The Hague.
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