Abstract
While trite to say, the world’s geopolitical and geoeconomic centre of gravity has shifted to the Indo-Pacific. Trade between the EU and Asia is massive and almost exclusively waterborne, with the Indian Ocean being the hub, while high-tech supply chains now focus on multiple states in the Western Pacific. A European role in the Indo-Pacific is unavoidable but demands significant resources in an era of concurrent challenges in the Euro-Atlantic following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A naval presence is a powerful signal of interest, but European naval capacity is limited. How and with whom can these naval assets be deployed, and what are the central trade-offs? The paper tackles these issues, by spelling out the relative costs, risks, and benefits for various European coalitions of naval powers that look to build their presence in different parts of the Indo-Pacific.
Panel: Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from the EU