Triangular Tensions and Opportunities: EU’s Global Gateway, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and the Future of EU-LAC Relations

• In Event: Europe-LAC Relations in the Face of the Growing Footprints of China/Asia in Latin America

Abstract

Amid shifting global hierarchies and intensifying great power competition, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has emerged as a geopolitical interface where China and the European Union (EU) project divergent models of engagement. This paper examines the EU’s Global Gateway as both a response to China’s expanding footprint in the region -through the Belt and Road Initiative- and a bid to reframe its interregional partnership with LAC. Traditionally rooted in political dialogue, development cooperation, and trade liberalization, the EU-LAC relationship now faces the imperative of redefining its terms in the changing world order.Framed as a values-based alternative to China’s investment strategy, the Global Gateway seeks to renew European influence through infrastructure investments focused on digitalization, sustainability, and connectivity. According to the European Commission, its emphasis on transparency, human rights, and mutual benefit distinguishes it from more transactional, state-driven models. Yet, this strategic reorientation raises critical questions: Can the EU match China’s demand-responsive and pragmatic approach? Does its normative discourse translate into tangible and equitable benefits? And to what extent can LAC actors assert agency in a landscape marked by asymmetrical power relations? By critically engaging with theories of interregionalism, the paper argues that the Global Gateway is part of the EU’s broader effort to diversify alliances and reduce dependencies on major global powers such as China and the United States, while bolstering its role as a global normative leader in green and digital transitions.

Author

• Bruno Theodoro Luciano, São Paulo State University