Brussels Indo-Pacific Forum 2022

The Indo-Pacific has become the centre stage of a shifting global balance of power, with far-reaching implications for the European and global economy and security. Rising to this challenge, the EU has a produced a strategy for the Indo-Pacific and NATO has adjusted its strategic approach to the region. Yet, with burning security concerns at its doorstep, many questions about Europe’s role and effective engagement in the Indo-Pacific remain. How to respond to Sino-American competition while promoting its own interests in the region? What are the best channels, partners and cooperative structures to engage with? How can the EU comprehensively leverage its economic, technological and diplomatic clout? And how do Indo-Pacific countries respond to Europe’s growing regional ambitions?

The Brussels Indo-Pacific Forum aimed to provide a unique platform for experts and policymakers to discuss Europe’s role in the Indo-Pacific and bring the Indo-Pacific security debate to the European capital. In light of the evolving debate inside and outside Europe, the inaugural edition of the Forum put the spotlight on the EU’s tightening relations with like-minded regional partners, explore the trends and possible contribution to the security and defence and it delved into the prospects for technological and economic cooperation.

The Forum was convened by the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG), which has established itself as a leading reference for informing academic and policy debates on the Indo-Pacific in Brussels through its Korea Chair and Japan Chair. In this year’s edition of the Forum, CSDS partnered with the European Union to launch two reports on security and digitalisation in the Indo-Pacific, which are the deliverables of a two-year EU funded project that sought to develop a common reflection on future challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. Furthermore, CSDS used the opportunity to announce the establishment of a Japan Chair, bearing witness to the significant political, economic and strategic rapprochement between the two like-minded partners and setting the scene for closer and more substantive cooperation in the years to come.

Watch the Brussels Indo-Pacific Forum 2022