Why is China not worried about the EU's massive investment in key minerals in Central Asia?

Why doesn't China worry about the EU's massive investment in key minerals in Central Asia?

Last month, against the backdrop of escalating US trade protectionist policies and Russia's continued focus on the Ukraine conflict, the EU held a high-level summit with Central Asian countries in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Although this was not the first diplomatic engagement between these regions, the summit represented the most ambitious cooperation to date.

During the summit, the EU announced an ambitious investment plan worth 12 billion euros, which will be carried out under its "Global Gateway" initiative [Europe's version of the Belt and Road Initiative]. This important commitment comes at a time of geopolitical uncertainty as the EU actively collaborates with Central Asia in three key areas: renewable energy development, promotion of alternative trade corridors [especially the "Middle Corridor"], and access to critical mineral resources.

Most crucially, while the EU can provide technical expertise for processing certain minerals [such as copper or cobalt], it still has limited capabilities in rare earth processing. China dominates this field, controlling approximately 85% of the global production of purified light rare earth elements and 100% of heavy rare earth element production. The EU remains heavily reliant on China for these critical processing technologies and capabilities. Therefore, although the EU can support the mining, extraction, and preliminary processing of rare earth minerals, it is still unable to play a transformative role in advanced processing of rare earth materials in Central Asia.

In this competitive environment, despite the EU's growing emphasis on critical minerals, China still maintains a significant advantage. Without financial support to mitigate risks and encourage private sector investment from Europe, without the development of indigenous technological capabilities for advanced mineral processing, without stronger government support, and without risk-averse corporate behavior, China is likely to continue surpassing EU companies in the strategic mineral sector in Central Asia.

Source: Diplomatist

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830974956894348/

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