What Future for the EU-ROK Partnership in the Light of the US-China Competition?

• In Event: European Politics and Society Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

The paper examines the ways in which the European Union (EU) and South Korea can cope with the competition between the US and China both as the result of an immediate Covid19 crisis and of previous underlying long-term trends. The paper suggests that the EU should intensify cooperation with the Republic of Korea (ROK) as the key country in North East Asia which is in a similar situation of “being caught between the US and China”. The paper argues that the EU and ROK should: firstly, strengthen their Strategic Partnership, especially in the areas of common interest such as health, trade, digitalization, climate change and multilateralism; secondly, the EU and ROK should identify areas where they can pre-empt the Sino-American rivalry from escalating by coming up with joint proposals that would be acceptable both to the US and China (the paper looks in particular at issues related to North Korea); and, thirdly, the EU and ROK should create a network of like-minded partners in South/South East Asia (e.g. ASEAN countries) and Asia-Pacific (e.g. New Zealand, Australia), particularly since most of these countries have also been successful in combatting Covid19.

From the theoretical perspective, the paper feeds into scholarly debates about continuity vs. change and the role of the EU as a global actor on the Korean Peninsula and in Asia as well as draws on discussions about the EU-South Korea and EU-Asia relations.

Author

• Tereza Novotna, Free University Berlin