Targeting Collective Action: Europe And the Global South

Europe is grappling with multiple dilemmas in its pursuit of greater political and economic security. The rapidly shifting geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape is pressuring Europe to be at the same time cautious and ambitious in defining its priorities. With isolationism on the rise globally, Europe is seeking to redefine and consolidate its position in the global order. The Global South, too, faces its own set of challenges, and it is raising significant concerns around climate action, development financing, trade and technology transformations, and reform of the multilateral order. As other countries continue to propose dependent partnership models from the outside, countries in the Global South are seeking a fair share of influence in shaping the future of global governance.

Why Europe and the Global South need each other

Due to the legacy of colonialism, Europe’s engagement with the Global South has been more transactional than transformational in nature. Despite the EU being one of the largest providers of development aid, Europe as a whole has not paid adequate attention to the concerns of the Global South. While it has been complacently enjoying its comfort zone of economic and political clout, European unity has fallen through the cracks. Europe’s recent geopolitical awakening has instead revealed economic fragmentation, weak political leadership, lacking European integration, policy incoherence and the dominance of parochial interests.

As the transatlantic relationship and NATO face critical questions about their future amid the ongoing US-China tariff and trade wars, Europe is being visibly isolated. The turmoil heaving inside and outside Europe necessitates tactical and innovative forms of partnership with the Global South. Although the Global South has consistently featured in the EU’s foreign, development and trade policies for several decades, Europe’s participation and engagement have remained quite underwhelming and laden with neocolonialist tendencies. Critics have repeatedly highlighted how Eurocentrism has undermined its partnerships by marginalising developing countries and relegating them to the status of mere markets for investments and raw materials, rather than partners on an equal footing. As a normative actor, Europe touts the values of multilateralism, the rule of law and democracy, yet there is a mismatch between its stated policies and their implementation abroad. Europe’s problems stem from its shifting priorities, differing ambitions among its member states and some inevitable hypocrisies in its attempt to be an avid champion of multilateralism.

Simply put, Europe needs the Global South’s agency in multilateral decision-making to bring about a long-lasting and sustainable form of multilateralism. The Global South needs Europe, too – to lend credence to its concerns about rising geoeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, the external imposition of universal standards and sustainability regulations for core sectors, and the gradual establishment of economic diplomacy as the new lynchpin of global development strategy.

Trust, tactics and trade-offs

Europe’s global connectivity agenda offers a wealth of opportunities to build attractive partnerships grounded in mutual interests and concrete engagement. The EU’s Global Gateway infrastructure initiative represents a sense of realism dawning on Europe and an awareness that it must respond to emerging geopolitical realities. However, despite the initiative’s focus on building sustainable relationships and linkages across domains, it has still come under fire from the Global South. Critics have described it as a mere rebranding strategy of the EU that repackages existing instruments without adding new financial flows and is slow to spur collective action and deliver tangible results on the ground.

Faced with increasing economic threats and geopolitical disruptions to global value chains, Europe must strengthen its industrial competitiveness, pursue smart diversification in underdeveloped sectors and build just partnerships for inclusive growth with the Global South. Developing countries – especially through the BRICS, G20 and IBSA Dialogue formats – are actively forging their own political and economic agendas in the post-pandemic world. India’s 2023 G20 presidency highlighted “development, inclusive growth and sustainable prosperity” as core objectives of the multilateral order.

Europe can team up with countries like India in critical areas such as health, skills training and climate to deliver joint and innovative developmental solutions that can attract the attention of the Global South, particularly vulnerable countries in Africa and the Indo-Pacific. They can, for example, work to deliver low-cost solutions in unconventional sectors with limited business incentives, focusing on climate adaptation and resilience, the energy transition, knowledge collaboration and technical training.

“As a normative actor, Europe touts the values of multilateralism, the rule of law and democracy, yet there is a mismatch between its stated policies and their implementation abroad.”

Simultaneously, bolstering connectivity from physical to digital would help to enhance preparedness and resilience within societies, leverage investments in cyber technology and enable people-centred, outcome-based impact. Progress in these areas – in addition to ensuring openness and fairness in partnerships – are some of the key ingredients for strengthening the relationship between Europe and the Global South.

The reform of international institutions and global governance is also high on the Global South’s agenda, as it can enable their strategic assertiveness and increase their bargaining power in negotiations with great powers. China’s increasing role in global geopolitics is unsettling both Europe and some members of the Global South, and they share the goal of reducing dependence on Beijing. This provides a window of opportunity for Europe to tailor its partnerships to countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa to preserve and protect the importance of multilateralism. It is pivotal that attempts are made to address the issues of debt burdens and unsustainable models of partnerships. One of the primary ways Europe has identified to secure its interests is through supply chain diversification, and this insight should drive its search for alternative models of partnerships with the Global South. In this domain, trust building, supply chain management and economic diversification all become critical priorities.

Finally, trade agreements remain a key means to opening new avenues for cooperation and promoting economic growth and resilience. India has recently been on a free trade agreement (FTA) signing spree, the last of which it signed with the United Kingdom in May 2025. Brussels should take serious note of the lacklustre progress in its FTA negotiations with India and push for a conclusive and mutually beneficial agreement. In addition, the EU should overcome its protectionist regulatory mechanisms and consider accelerating its economic engagement with a wide variety of Global South actors. And it is crucial that Europe considers increasing outbound investments in digital technologies, human capital, the energy transition and capital market development.

Moving forward, Europe must not only establish cooperative frameworks on trade and technology, but also focus on regaining trust. It is time for Europe to take its geopolitical awakening seriously. This demands the establishment of proactive, robust, enduring and truly multi-centric partnerships with the Global South grounded in mutual respect and shared ambition.

This commentary originally appeared in BKHS Magazine.

• International Affairs
• European Union
• EU foreign policy
• Europe–Global South partnership
• geopolitical awakening
• global governance reform
• multilateralism

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