Competing Connectivity Strategies: Infrastructure Politics in Asia and Beyond

The global economic centre of gravity is shifting towards Asia. China, India, and Japan are all competing for influence. They are following different strategies to more closely interconnect Asian countries as well as the region as a whole with the world at large via networks of transportation and through energy projects. China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” has captured the headlines as the most comprehensive and ambitious plan linking Asia and Europe. Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” foresees infrastructure investments from Southeast Asia to East Africa. India’s “Act East” policy seeks closer relations with Southeast Asia via infrastructure investments.

Where do these different connectivity strategies converge? Where will they result in conflicts, where in cooperation? How will these projects be financed? Against the background of prevailing geopolitical tensions, the GIGA Talk will discuss Chinese, Indian, and Japanese motivations and major projects within Asia and beyond and investigate the implications for Europe and for Germany itself.

Speakers: Dr. Sreeradha Datta, Senior Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi Dr. Margot Schüller, Associate at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies Dr. Christian Wirth, Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies

Commentary: Friedolin Strack, Managing Director and Coordinator Germany, Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business Alexander Schönfelder, Director for Technology Policy, Trade-, Finance- and Sanctions Policy and Investment Promotion at the German Federal Foreign Office

Moderation: Dr. Johannes Plagemann, Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies and Speaker of the “Ideas and Agency” Research Team

Please confirm your attendance by 1 November 2018 by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

The Chatham House Rule applies to this event. Unfortunately, the venue is not wheelchair accessible.