![\"'Defend](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/Defend-whenever-necessary-EU-ramps-up-Indo-Pacific-presence-following-China-fears-1611985.jpg?r=1652850298700\")
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‘Defend whenever necessary!’ EU ramps up Indo-Pacific presence following China fears\u00a0(Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n The EU has ramped up its involvement amid concerns about China’s growing presence in the region.\u00a0(Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n “It\u2019s surely a signal to others who might wish to break the multilateral order in such a violent way, well, then they know what they can encounter.”<\/p>\n But Mr Visentin did not pull any punches in the way he describes Brussels’ relationship with Beijing.<\/p>\n He explained how China was seen as “a partner, a competitor and a rival” by the EU.<\/p>\n Mr Visentin’s intervention comes after world leaders expressed concern about China’s security pact with the Solomon Islands in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Our motto is always to cooperate whenever possible, but to defend whenever necessary as well.”\u00a0(Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n The move caused particular consternation in Canberra and Wellington.<\/p>\n Australia and New Zealand reportedly felt they had been caught “off guard” by the draft deal.<\/p>\n The deal is even said to present China with the potential opportunity to base its warships in the Pacific, less than 1,250miles away from the Australian coast.<\/p>\n Speaking about the deal, Mr Visentin said: “Of course, the signal that the Solomon Islands have sent to us is loud and clear: the EU and others have to do more.”<\/p>\n His remark about the potential pact was echoed by the EU\u2019s ambassador for the Pacific and Solomon Islands, Sujiro Seam, who said the deal pointed to the EU\u2019s need to step up in the Pacific region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Australia and New Zealand reportedly felt they had been caught “off guard” by the draft deal.\u00a0(Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n He explained how China was seen as \u201ca partner, a competitor and a rival\u201d by the EU.\u00a0(Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n Mr Seam said: “EU\u2019s experience in matters of security and defence in the Pacific is very limited.<\/p>\n “It is a challenge for the future, and this security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands must be considered in the development of the European Union action on security and defence in the region.<\/p>\n “Traditionally in the Pacific, the European Union has been a development partner.<\/p>\n “The main challenge is to show that we can be something else, a strategic partner in security and defence.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brussels has pledged to step up its defence strategy in Asia following concerns for international order in the region which comes after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. The EU’s special envoy to the Indo-Pacific even suggested the EU needed to defend its interests in the region. Gabriele Visentin, who was appointed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5274,3347,8249,6263,1904,159,9505,1195,9127,3577,10453,8316,10954,5252,5187,96,12103,3457,5655,1898,2711,5180,7231,6348,5251,10071,3954,36,594],"class_list":["post-21999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australian","tag-beijing","tag-brussels","tag-eu","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-february","tag-future","tag-guard","tag-indo-pacific","tag-international","tag-invasion","tag-new-zealand","tag-china","tag-price","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-special-envoy","tag-taiwan","tag-ukraine","tag-union","tag-us","tag-war","tag-wellington","tag-will","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/The-EU-has-ramped-up-its-involvement-amid-concerns-about-China-s-growing-presence-in-the-region-4075984.jpg?r=1652850308485\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/Our-motto-is-always-to-cooperate-whenever-possible-but-to-defend-whenever-necessary-as-well-4075981.jpg?r=1652850308598\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"Australia](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/Australia-and-New-Zealand-reportedly-felt-they-had-been-caught-off-guard-by-the-draft-deal-4075983.jpg?r=1652850308773\" "\\"Australia")
<\/p>\n![\"Xi](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/1200x712\/1611117_1.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"He](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/He-explained-how-China-was-seen-as-a-partner-a-competitor-and-a-rival-by-the-EU-4075982.jpg?r=1652850308948\" "\\"He")
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