Shifting narratives? The EU’s approach to the Indo-Pacific after the war in Ukraine

ABSTRACT

The EU’s release of its first Indo-Pacific strategy in 2021 was seen as a significant step in its growing geopolitical ambitions. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequent security crisis have suggested a shift in policymakers’ attention and a reordering of the EU’s strategic priorities. This article examines how the war in Ukraine has impacted the EU’s narrative and actions in the Indo-Pacific. Drawing on the literature on EU actorness, it seeks to determine whether the war has accelerated or decelerated the EU’s urgency to engage in the Indo-Pacific. It does so by looking at the evolution of the EU’s relations with ASEAN and Taiwan. The article includes textual analysis of strategic documents, policy pronouncements, and speeches from both before and after the war began in February 2022, providing insights into the evolution of the EU-Indo-Pacific cooperation and the EU’s growing role in the region.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• foreign policy
• Indo-pacific
• actorness
• Ukraine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gorana Grgić

Gorana Grgić, Ph.D, is is a Senior Researcher in the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security team at the ETH Zürich’s Center for Security Studies. She is also a non-resident Senior Lecturer at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and an Expert Associate with the National Security College at the Australian National University. Her research interests include US and EU foreign policy, NATO, and the nexus between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security. Gorana’s research projects and teaching activities have been funded by the European Commission, NATO, Australian Research Council, Australian Department of Defence, and the United States Institute of Peace.

Giulia Tercovich

Giulia Tercovich, Ph.D, is the Assistant Director of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) and Assistant Professor in International Affairs at the Brussels School of Governance of the VUB. She has a double-doctoral degree in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick (UK) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). She was Erasmus Mundus PhD Fellow in the GEM PhD School in Globalization, the EU and Multilateralism. Her research focuses on the European Union’s foreign policy, political leadership and crisis management, in particular towards the Indo-Pacific region. Her first monograph on ‘Assessing EU Leadership in inter-regional Relations: The Case of the Institutionalization of ASEAN Disaster Management’ was published by Routledge in 2022.