The European Union has prepared a response to the Chinese Belt and Road Forum

The European Union (EU) plans to hold the Global Gateway forum in Brussels on October 25 and 26, named after the project of the same name, which is called an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. The third forum under this name was held in Beijing on October 17–18. The EU’s plans were reported by Bloomberg, citing sources in the association’s top management.

The EU will host leaders from around 20 countries next week to “strengthen its global infrastructure plan to compete with China in strategic regions.” Among those who confirmed their participation are the heads of Bangladesh, Namibia, Senegal and Moldova. It is also possible that representatives of Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be present in Brussels. From the European business side, the companies Orange, Allianz, Alstom, Danone, Enel, Siemens and Telefonica will be represented, the media writes.

At the same time, the EU recognizes that the forum will have a smaller scope and a narrower focus compared to the Belt and Road that was recently held in China. The main topics of the event will be green energy, education and research, critical raw materials, transport corridors, manufacturing of medical supplies and digital infrastructure. The EU wants to strengthen engagement with invited countries, both because of the growing influence of China and Russia in them, and because of the important role they play in accessing critical materials and in combating illegal migration into Europe.

At the same time, back in August 2023, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the Global Gateway and the Belt and Road complement each other. At the same time, both initiatives – both Chinese and European – are criticized by opponents for having very vague content, when a number of projects that are implemented on an interstate basis are subsequently cited as an example of their success.

In particular, two memorandums of understanding between the EU and the DRC and Zambia may be signed at the forum, which will give Europeans access to critical raw materials. These documents will be part of a broader EU program to develop a transport corridor in Africa, which links the two countries mentioned with the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast.

For the first time, the President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen spoke about the Global Gateway project back in 2021. The EC website says that it is planned to allocate 300 billion euros for the project from 2021 to 2027 to stimulate the development of “smart, environmentally friendly and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors.” Financing will be provided both by the development and financial institutions of the EU and its members, and by private investment through a system of financial guarantees. By comparison, the Green Finance & Development Center think tank estimates that the Belt and Road Initiative raised $1 trillion in its first decade. Another estimate is provided by the American Enterprise Institute, which at the beginning of 2023 estimated that Belt and Road projects account for about $370 billion.

The Chinese Belt and Road Forum was held on October 17 and 18, 2023 in Beijing for the third time and was dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the initiative of the same name. This time, fewer state leaders attended it than before: in 2017 there were 29 of them, two years later – 37, and now – 22, which is also due to the almost complete absence of Western leaders (from the EU countries only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban). In total, the summit was attended by delegations from more than 130 countries. According to Chinese President Xi Jinping, agreements worth $97.2 billion were concluded as a result of the Belt and Road business forum.

European officials began implementing the Global Gateway in practice only in January 2023. Then Politico reported on 70 priority projects that the EU has identified for itself for the current year within the framework of the Global Gateway. Among them are the construction of an undersea fiber optic cable between the countries of the Mediterranean and North Africa with a length of over 8,700 km (Alcatel Submarine Networks, Elettra Tlc, Medusa and Orange are participating), the construction of a dam and a hydroelectric power station in Cameroon.

An anonymous EU official argued then that the Global Gateway does not carry political overtones. At the same time, a number of his projects are concentrated in countries neighboring China and Russia: the Politico article talked about a partnership with Indonesia on the issue of energy transition, a digitalization project in the Philippines, a hydrogen project in Kazakhstan, the development of transport infrastructure in general in Central Asia and hydroelectric power plants in Tajikistan.

Indeed, a couple of years ago the European Union decided to put forward its alternative to the Chinese project, announcing the allocation of a significant amount of 300 billion euros for this, says Vladislav Belov, head of the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences. China was able to demonstrate that its initiative is alive, despite the growing skepticism towards it in Europe, and the world will learn the first results of the Global Gateway only at its forum, since the EU has not yet published information on this matter.

There are specific economic and political interests behind the EU project, but Brussels does not go beyond the framework of international law, as it does with sanctions, Belov emphasizes. Both Chinese and European projects in one way or another distort market competition due to significant government support, but there is nothing surprising here, the expert says. At the same time, other major players are also trying to put forward similar initiatives – the USA, India, Brazil, the BRICS+ format, etc., and their interests may quite logically run counter to them.

The EU’s desire to deprive China of its monopoly on this kind of infrastructure initiatives is obvious, says RIAC scientific director Andrei Kortunov. It is still difficult to judge how successful Brussels will be, since China has been working in this field longer and has allocated much more funds, he adds. In addition, for many Belt and Road countries over the past 10 years, China has become the main trading partner. At the same time, Beijing will, according to Kortunov, strive to avoid direct opposition of the two projects, since it still hopes to establish constructive relations with the EU.