This article examines the European Union's Global Gateway (GG) initiative in Latin America, focusing on projects in Brazil and Chile that have been highlighted by the European Commission. Launched in December 2021, the GG is considered the European Union's most ambitious global investment strategy, with an estimated 300 billion euros in investments planned worldwide by 2027, of which 45 billion euros are earmarked for Latin America and the Caribbean. This policy brief discusses GG's role as one of the EU's primary international investment strategies, particularly in terms of promoting sustainable development and addressing climate change in the Global South. We critically assess whether GG contributes to the global green agenda by examining flagship GG projects in Brazil and Chile and their alignment with Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in climate and green energy. We also assess whether the GG has fostered meaningful cooperation and coherence between EU investors and local stakeholders, and to what extent the GG agenda reinforces extractivist patterns in Latin America, given the predominance of investment in green hydrogen and critical raw materials. This is particularly evident in GG projects in Chile, whereas the GG agenda in Brazil is more diversified. Moreover, the following issues are identified as key challenges that the GG agenda needs to overcome to contribute to the green transition and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America: repackaging previous European cooperation projects; a lack of transparency; the predominance of investment and private sector-centred logic; low inclusion of local and social actors; and participation asymmetries at the design and implementation levels.

This paper examines how major powers construct and deploy strategic narratives around infrastructure to shape political order, regional alignment, and geopolitical imagination in Central Asia/Eurasia. It conceptualizes physical infrastructures – transport corridors, digital networks, and energy systems – not only as objects of economic and business competition but also of discursive contestation and symbolic instruments through which external actors project influence and articulate their strategic visions.

First, the study comparatively analyzes China (BRI), the European Union (Global Gateway), and Türkiye (within the OTS framework), investigating how these three external actors narratively construct competing visions of ‘connectivity’ in and through Central Asia. Second, it scrutinizes how Central Asian states, primarily Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, interpret, adapt, selectively internalize, or resist these narratives to preserve their agency and advance their preferred national and regional interests. Third, it also looks at how narrative convergence/divergence influences the practical implementation of infrastructural connectivity projects on the ground.

Empirically, the project will rely on qualitative analysis of policy speeches, official statements, strategic documents, media materials, and elite interviews. Findings are expected to contribute to several strands of scholarship: (1) discursive and strategic narrative competition among external powers in Central Asia/Eurasia; (2) the literature on infrastructural geopolitics; and (3) the agency of local actors in navigating, contesting, and shaping external narratives within a complex geopolitical environment.

In 2025, Viet Nam and the European Union (EU) marked the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, reflecting a long-standing partnership supported by a dense network of agreements and cooperation mechanisms. Building on this trajectory, both sides formally agreed to upgrade their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership on 29 January 2026 through a Joint Statement adopted in Ha Noi. Notably, Viet Nam became the EU’s first Comprehensive Strategic Partner in ASEAN, signalling a new phase in the EU’s engagement with Southeast Asia and its approach to development cooperation in the region. This paper examines why science and technology cooperation is identified as a key pillar of development cooperation within the EU-Viet Nam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Rather than assessing outcomes or impacts at this early stage, the paper focuses on the development rationales underpinning this prioritisation. Drawing on qualitative analysis of official policy documents and joint statements, it explores how science, technology, research and innovation are framed as essential components of long-term, inclusive and sustainable development. The analysis highlights the alignment of development priorities between the EU and Viet Nam, particularly in relation to human capital development, digital transformation, the green transition and skills formation. Within this context, science and technology cooperation is presented not merely as a sectoral area of engagement, but as an enabling pillar supporting capacity-building and structural transformation in line with Viet Nam’s long-term development objectives. Furthermore, the paper also examines the role of the Global Gateway as an enabling framework that supports broader development objectives by mobilising investment, infrastructure, connectivity and technical cooperation. By analysing Viet Nam as the EU’s first Comprehensive Strategic Partner in ASEAN, this paper offers early insights into how the EU is rearticulating its role as a global development actor and how partnership-based models of development cooperation are taking shape in Southeast Asia.