H.E. Nicolas Chapuis, EU Ambassador to China

Opening remarks, 1st EU-China Experts' Seminar on Maritime Security

30 October 2019, Haikou, Hainan

1. By holding the first Experts' Seminar on Maritime Security, we are jointly contributing to deepening an important chapter in bilateral relations between the European Union and China. I would like to express my gratitude to President WU Shicun of the National Institute of South China Sea Studies for hosting us in Haikou. Also special thanks to the Chinese ministry of Foreign Affairs for their support and presence.

2. Let me also welcome our distinguished experts who will contribute to and shape the outcomes of the Seminar. I may already inform you about the second seminar that we are planning to hold next year in Europe. After that, we will jointly assess if and how to go one step ahead towards setting a full-fledged bilateral High-Level Dialogue on Maritime Security which would step up our cooperation on a topic that is of utmost importance to both of us.

3. The European Union is truly a maritime actor. Still, 23 out of 28 EU Member State have a coastline. The EU’s coastline is almost five times as long as the one of china. There is more sea than land under the jurisdiction of EU Member States. Last but not least, together with overseas territories, the EU has the world’s largest maritime territory.

4. As a global maritime security provider, the European Union seeks, among other things, to further promote and implement the law-based order in the maritime domain (based on the UNCLOS). We are present in high-risk security areas through our CSDP Missions and Operations, such as EU NAVFOR Atalanta (off the Horn of Africa) or EU NAVFOR MED Operation Sophia (in the Mediterranean). What is more, we promote sustainable use of maritime resources and biological diversity and enhance ocean knowledge and awareness. We maintain close collaboration with partners from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

5. We highly value our cooperation with China in this respect. We share many commitments and interests when it comes to areas such climate change, ocean governance and sustainable development of oceans. Together with China we embarked on an ever closer cooperation, starting with the year of 2017, which was proclaimed as the EU-China Blue Year. Building on that, in 2018, at the EU-China Summit in Brussels we decided to go a step further and signed the EU-China Ocean Partnership -the first agreement of this kind that the EU signed in history [the second ocean partnership agreement has just been concluded with Canada in July 2019]. Marine environmental protection is the centre point of our Blue Partnership; glad to see that it has been also reflected as the starting point for the Seminar.

6. Also, in the sphere of peace and security, we are experiencing an enhanced cooperation. As laid out in the EU Strategic Outlook of 12 March 2019, the EU will deepen its engagement with China in the peace and security cooperation. Our aim is to build on positive elements- such as JCPOA-but also engage on issues of mutual concern-such as the security of strategic sea lines of communications, which are vital to the EU and China’s economic interests. Protecting of critical maritime infrastructure and sharing experiences between Law Enforcement agencies at sea is crucial and will be discussed today and tomorrow as well.

7. Sea transport is a very important element of the EU's Strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia. Much of EU's seaborne trade passes through waters of the South China Sea. I am glad to see that the issue of regional cooperation in maritime security as well the international ocean governance will be tackled in detail during the seminar.

8. All in all, I must stress that since 2018, the EU and China have been engaged in the High- Level Dialogue on Law of the Sea and Polar Affairs, which allows us to closely examine some of the issues that I just mentioned. The second round of the dialogue has just taken place five weeks ago in Brussels. I am convinced that today’s Seminar is filling an important gap that we identified and will allow us to focus in detail on issues that have not been sufficiently discussed in an official setting.

9. Let me conclude by saying, that I am in particular satisfied to see today’s event taking place just after the EU-China Asia Pacific foreign policy consultations(chaired by EEASMD Gunnar WIEGAND and Director-General of Asian Affairs Department of the MFA,WU Jianghao) which we held last Friday in Beijing. During the consultations we discussed at length the situation in Asia Pacific and Europe. The Euro-Asia-Pacific space is the global powerhouse, which in 2018 accounted for 65% of the world GDP and 71% of the global growth. What is more, the Euro-Asia-Pacific space matters the most in the maritime domain by hosting the most important sea line of communications. This just shows the importance of the Seminar that we are holding today.

Wish productive proceedings.