In the trade and ideological conflict with China, the European Union and the United States are pushing for credible connections to ensure that the exponentially increasing global demand for digital and physical infrastructure is influenced by democratic values.
By providing secure, credible, and transparent connections based on democratic values, the West hopes to provide answers to the growing influence of authoritarian governments.
The President of the European Council Charles Michel emphasized at the Tallinn Digital Summit on Tuesday (September 7): “Some groups are working hard to establish connectivity to establish deep dependence.”
“They are not waiting for us. According to their economic and political interests, their connectivity proposal is already on the table. So we need to strengthen our game,” he said.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Callas added that the threat of being “surpassed” by the dictatorship is hanging over transatlantic communities because the economic balance is tilting in favor of the dictatorship.
Although the leaders of the Tallinn summit did not explicitly point to China, the message was clear.
Led by the multi-billion-euro “Belt and Road” initiative, China is investing heavily to expand its influence globally.
Turn to China
US President Joe Biden has tried to unite the G7 countries behind him by urging democracies to provide alternatives to the “Belt and Road” initiative to counter China’s growing influence in developing countries.
This alternative seems to be taking shape Rebuild a better world (B3W) The partnership was announced during the G7 summit in June.
The goal of B3W is to consolidate the foundations of democracies in the developing world and ensure that the future of the global South is based on democratic values such as transparency, sustainability and good governance standards.
The EU has also stepped up its efforts to ensure that Europe has a share of the race to meet global infrastructure needs (estimated at 33.8 trillion euros).
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimundo emphasized the importance of transatlantic projects, “setting rules cannot be left to authoritarian governments.” She added that the EU and the United States must “show the world that we can solve problems on the other side of the Atlantic”.
The EU is currently formulating a new “Connectivity Strategy”, which will be released in the next few months.
“Europe must strive for greater influence and reduce dependence. This applies to our digital strategy as well as our geopolitical strategy,” Michelle emphasized and added that what Europe needs is something “rooted in us.” The values of the “connectivity strategy” are reflected in our standards.
The strategy follows a in conclusion In July, the EU Foreign Minister called on the European Commission to develop a tool to promote EU values abroad and promote its interests through a series of high-impact and visible global projects and actions.
Atlantic Council estimate By improving coordination and prioritization among democracies, these initiatives could reach between 422 billion and 844 billion euros.
Set standards and promote cooperation
Raimundo outlines that this is not just “money.” While investment in the low- and middle-income world is essential, setting standards and ensuring regulatory interoperability are equally important.
Although the investment strategy of authoritarian countries ignores values such as sustainability, climate or human rights, transatlantic communities can ensure that these values are upheld in the future by “packaging investments and proving that they meet certain standards,” Raimundo said.
She added that this method can release a large amount of private and public capital.
One of the main frameworks of this approach is the Blue Dot Network (BDN), an excellence certification program launched by the United States, Japan, and Australia in 2019.
BND hopes to encourage public and private investment through branding and certification of infrastructure projects guided by transparency, accountability and security. It also hopes to increase investor confidence by establishing shared practices.
also, EU leaders agreed with Biden in June The establishment of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Commission (TTC) to simplify cooperation in key trade and technology areas, such as the regulation of artificial intelligence, online platforms or data streams. The first meeting of TTC will be held from September 28th to 29th.
Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for Economic Affairs of the European Commission, said on Tuesday: “If we work together, we can better set international standards.”
[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Zoran Radosavljevic]
