The Global Gateway and Central Asia: Toward an EU-led Post-New Silk Road (original) (raw)

The Global Gateway, widely perceived as the European Union’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has created high expectations but also concerns about its potential to deliver. Despite the fair criticism, it is one of the most promising geopolitical initiatives of the EU in decades, and its full potential has yet to be reached. This report reflects on the EU’s Global Gateway strategy one and a half years after its inception with a specific focus on and offer of inspiration for one of the vectors of the strategy: Central Asia. Long seen as a backyard of Russia, Central Asian countries have gradually diversified their external engagement. Russia’s war in Ukraine has further exacerbated their dilemmas regarding partnerships. Although the role of China in Central Asia has grown markedly, the EU remains the leading trade partner and provider of development assistance. The EU is also engaged with the five countries in many other ways. This report advocates for the Central Asian vector as one of the most promising in the Global Gateway. It calls for the development of an EU-led post-New Silk Road, rooted in the values set out by the Global Gateway and the interests of both the EU and Central Asian countries. An EU-led post- New Silk Road would involve – but would not be limited to – developing ambitious intermodal transport connections, digital highways, and energy interconnections linking the two regions and circumventing Russia. Connecting these regions would naturally further bind the EU members that comprise the Three Seas Initiative and the EU’s candidate countries to the East and to the EU’s partners in Caucasus.