EU has a unique opportunity to offer concrete proposals and make it a true Europe-China initiative

This year marks a milestone for relations between the European Union and China, the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations, which have now evolved to myriad global issues. Although the recent EU-China Summit in Brussels was unsurprisingly overshadowed by the Greek crisis, important discussions centred on how both parties can mutually benefit from the synergies of China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's Investment Plan.

Officially first announced in Astana in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative has become a catchword in China and aims at improving connectivity between China, Asia and Europe. So far, there has been no proper EU response to it. The initiative merges the land-based Silk Road from China via Central Asia to Turkey and the EU as well as the maritime route via the Indian Ocean and Africa to Europe. Both are intended to develop transportation infrastructure, facilitate economic development, increase trade and people-to-people exchanges. This 21st century initiative is not merely for China to romanticize its historical legacies; it carries major strategic economic and geopolitical considerations.

China seems to pursue three key objectives:

First, China needs a new impetus for its economy. Although its GDP grew around 7.4 percent last year, the lowest since the 1990s, a further slowdown seems inevitable. Given the massive overcapacity in the manufacturing sector, the vast state-owned enterprises with falling returns on equity, the real estate bubble and increasing environmental pressures, China urgently needs to find new economic engines. The Belt and Road Initiative, with its focus on infrastructure development, matches well with the appetite of Chinese SOEs with overcapacity.

Second, the Silk Road will also help to alleviate China's thirst for energy, with new gas pipelines in Central Asia and new deep-water harbors in South Asia to be constructed. These massive infrastructure projects will also accelerate the renminbi's internationalization and its emergence as an alternative reserve currency, a strategic economic objective.

Third and most important, the core of this initiative lies in its strategic and geopolitical importance.

China seeks to build a cordon sanitaire of regional stability. China's leadership firmly believes economic prosperity is the only way to maintain peace in its fragile neighborhood, from volatile Central Asia and war-torn Afghanistan to the terror belt in the Middle East and North Africa. The Chinese government has resisted the idea of labelling the initiative as its own Marshall Plan, but in the mind-set of Chinese leaders, the commonality of economic interests with the corridor nations and a sound infrastructure bond will be the best way to prevent regional conflicts and provide a viable way to export China's model of development - the right to develop irrespective of political systems.

Strategically, the initiative and the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund and other related initiatives send out a clear signal: China is ready to take on a greater role in regional and global governance. Over the past decades, China was an "agenda-follower" rather than "agenda-setter". A key principle of China's foreign policy has been a "peaceful rise with a low profile". Accordingly, China initially accepted and integrated into the existing system of global governance.

This phase is coming to an end. China's economic power and political weight are strong arguments for Beijing that its development must not continue to be subject to rules mainly decided by industrialized nations. Beijing intends to be more proactive in protecting its national interests.

The Chinese leadership has started to articulate more explicit policies toward regional and global governance, through concepts such as the "harmonious society" by former president Hu Jintao, and President Xi's "new type of major power relations". These concepts, mostly ignored by Western governments, are not just slogans. They have led to a number of visible changes in its foreign engagement: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS, G13, and economic forums such as the Boao Forum.

This strategic shift is potentially a game-changer for global governance. Its explicit focus on the wide definition of inclusiveness, the right to development, and based on a relatively fuzzy management style, will inevitably challenge the current Western principles of global governance.

The highly successful launch of the AIIB may just be a "teaser" from China. But it should be taken as a wake-up call. The ball is now in the hands of the EU to decide if and how to engage in these emerging processes. Although Europe continues to struggle with its own crisis, it should make the Belt and Road Initiative as its own as well as a strategic priority.

For the EU, there are major interests at stake: Regional stability at Europe's doors, economic development and energy supply, by improving diversification of supply.

This region, with India, Pakistan, Iran and Kazakhstan in the middle, could be major new markets for European firms, leveraging old European influence to both engage profitably with Chinese and local firms. Europe could also use it as a door-opener in the increasingly difficult but critical Chinese market itself, as China will need allies when engaging overseas.

This would likewise be an intelligent move to bind Russia into a regional cooperation through these two initiatives, irrespective of the present conflict. Discussions between the EU, the Eurasian Economic Union and China on a free trade agreement could be a medium-term objective.

Will the EU be an agenda-follower or an agenda-setter?

As China's largest trading partner and a partner without geopolitical conflicts with China, Europe should not wait for the Belt and Road Initiative to be further elaborated at this stage, as it is a "moving concept".

For Chinese decision-makers, concepts are subject to trial and error; like pilot projects, they are being developed as they mature. The EU has a unique opportunity to formulate its own respective interests and intentions and offer concrete proposals to China for collaboration in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, and make it a true Europe-China initiative, at both ends.

Michael Schaefer is chairman of BMW Foundation and former German ambassador to China; Wei Shen is director of Lancaster University Confucius Institute and Jean Monnet Chair in EU-China Relations; and Andre Loesekrug-Pietri is chairman of A CAPITAL Funds and executive chairman of Paulina Foundation. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 07/31/2015 page12)