In 2020, Andreea Zaharia, associate researcher at RISAP, participated in the pan-European research project Mapping Out EU-South Korea Relations: Key Member States’ Perspectives. The project was implemented by the KF-VUB Korea Chair of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and concluded with a report analyzing the relations between South Korea and 7 EU member states, including Romania. Andreea conducted [...]
On November 9, the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament organized a hearing on EU-China Trade and Investment Relations in a post-covid world. Andreea Brînză, Vice President of RISAP, was one of the European experts invited to testify at this hearing. In her testimony, Andreea presented an overview of China’s Belt and [...]
In designing a coherent, goal-driven, long-term China strategy, Europe should be ambitious, even if achieving its goals will be difficult. This will require vision, but also new tools and resources, which Europe now lacks. This need will in itself complicate things for European governments on the short term, but on the long run it [...]
The initial plan for the Leipzig Summit between China and the European Union featured all the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The goal of this 27+1 format was to project an image of unity among all EU member states, speaking to China [...]
From Paris to Riga, there are calls for a new European approach towards China. All over Europe, there is pressure for national governments and the European Union to adopt a more robust and assertive China policy. The COVID-19 pandemic and concerns over supply chain security and economic dependency on China have accelerated this trend, as [...]
On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel, on behalf of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union, together with the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, will have a virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Before this videoconference, European officials and leaders engaged and discussed on the topic of [...]
Some years ago, both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang showed a fondness for referencing popular American television shows including “Game of Thrones” and “House of Cards.” While they seen to display a firm grasp on Western pop culture, they seem to lack a thorough understanding of European politics. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang [...]
In November 2013, at the Bucharest Summit of the 16+1 initiative, China, Hungary, and Serbia talked about building a high-speed railway that would connect Belgrade to Budapest (respectively the capitals of Serbia and Hungary). The announcement happened just one month after Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and [...]
Thirty years of independence from communism and the Soviet Union have also meant 30 years of fear of a Russian invasion for Central and Eastern European countries. As a result, these countries have spent three decades consolidating relations with the United States and NATO — both of which they see as possible saviors in [...]
On September 1st, the world commemorated 80 years since Germany’s invasion of Poland, which marked the start of the Second World War. Over the next 5 years, German troops went on fighting all over Europe. The war eventually ended, not with the surrender, but the destruction and partition of Germany. It was the second [...]