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Maritime Cooperation in the European Union-China Relations and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: What is at Stake?

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Abstract

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its considerable geopolitical and economic weight have brought with it renewed impetus to the EU-China rapport, which has been largely managed by a developing institutionalized strategic partnership (SP). In this context, maritime security, although being a less explored issue, has become increasingly relevant considering not only the maritime component of BRI, but also the two actors’ respective emergences as maritime actors. The chapter analyzes the growing opportunities for cooperation that arise from such context, by resorting to elements of practice theory and Bourdieu’s thinking tools. It concludes that, in spite of existing challenges such as diverging worldviews, competition and some mistrust, there is space for fostering security cooperation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As Anna Leander explains, Bourdieu refers to his own concepts as “thinking tools” which are “open”, in the sense that he wished to develop concepts and mechanisms that should gain meaning in the context of a concrete issue or problem (2011, 308). Pierre Bourdieu has given very limited attention to the subject of the international (Mérand and Pouliot 2008). Such reality, however, paved the way for relevant literature aiming at discussing means to apply his work to IR, such as the one put forward by Emanuel Adler, Anna Leander, Fréderic Mérand and Vincent Pouliot, among others. See chapter’s references for more details. Here, we apply the concept of “habitus” mainly as understood by Adler and Pouliot when laying down the foundations of their understanding over international practices (Adler and Pouliot 2011), as well as Mérand (2012) and Bueger and Gadinger (2015).

  2. 2.

    Initially sparked by an extradition bill that would enable residents from Hong Kong to face trial in mainland China, this storm of pro-democracy protests has culminated in the local deepest political crisis in years.

  3. 3.

    See http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/china/. Accessed: 26 August 2019.

  4. 4.

    ASEAN is a concert of Southeast Asia nations, which currently reunites ten member states: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Source: ASEAN Web site. https://asean.org/asean/about-asean/overview/. Accessed 24 August 2019.

  5. 5.

    The most illustrative examples are the following: China-ASEAN Cooperation Framework, the China-ASEAN Marine Cooperation Center, and the East Asian Ocean Cooperation Platform, not to mention MOUs and joint statements for ocean cooperation with Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia (PRC 2017). Besides this, China and ASEAN conducted a joint maritime exercise in October 2018, the first ever held, are advancing with the negotiations of a Code of Conduct (COC) and have in 2012 implemented a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) (PRC 2019). The DOC is available at https://asean.org/?static_post=declaration-on-the-conduct-of-parties-in-the-south-china-sea-2. Accessed 24 August 2019.

  6. 6.

    The clear intention of the EU establishing an initiative of its own that would mirror BRI is implicit in the following excerpt: “Bilateral cooperation with individual countries should be adapted to their specific situation. For instance, with China, the EU should strengthen the existing cooperation on the respective infrastructure and development cooperation initiatives, promote the implementation of the principles of market access and a level playing field, as well as rely on international standards within initiatives on connectivity” (European Commission 2018, 7; emphasis added).

  7. 7.

    The framework involves cooperation in a wide array of areas between China and those countries, between EU member states and neighboring countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia). Source: CEEC Web site. http://www.china-ceec.org/eng/. Accessed 24 August 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Lívia Brasil Carmo Grault

  2. CICP-University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira

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Correspondence to Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira .

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  1. City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China

    Francisco José B. S. Leandro

  2. Research Centre in Political Science, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Paulo Afonso B. Duarte

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Grault, L.B.C., Ferreira-Pereira, L.C. (2020). Maritime Cooperation in the European Union-China Relations and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: What is at Stake?. In: Leandro, F., Duarte, P. (eds) The Belt and Road Initiative. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2564-3_11

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