Lizza Bomassi and Elina Noor explore the nature and future of the partnership between Europe and Southeast Asia.

The EU and ASEAN have diverging priorities in climate, security, technology, trade, and democracy. Stronger cooperation in these fields would enable the two blocs to tackle shared challenges and pursue common interests.

The European Union has labeled China as a cooperation partner, an economic competitor, and a systemic rival but is struggling to implement policies that account for the complexities of this relationship.

Decarbonization is key to delivering the energy transition, but it requires a massive increase in the mining and extraction of minerals like lithium, graphite, and cobalt. The countries that control these resources may be able to shape geopolitical power dynamics to their own advantage.

As traditional forms of cooperation struggle to keep pace with geopolitical and technological transformations, the EU will have to do more to maintain its economic power and technological independence.

Erdogan's Canal Istanbul is in the works, but the Montreux Convention—which regulates traffic through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits—could spell trouble for this mega-project.