*Originally published in 2025 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered directly to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

For a decade, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has set the cadence of global infrastructure finance: fast, centralised, often opaque. Europe’s answer, the Global Gateway, will never match Beijing’s firepower – and it doesn’t need to. The European Union’s advantage is governance and delivery: de-risking that crowds in private capital, standards that protect people and balance sheets, and assets that work and are maintained. The test is whether communities can point to functioning grids, ports and data links and say: this improved our lives. For years, the EU was dismissed as a payer more than a player. That view faded as the BRI expanded from logistics hubs to critical raw materials and corridor finance. In 2021, Brussels launched the Global Gateway to mobilise up to €300 billion by 2027, delivered via a “Team Europe” architecture that combines EU institutions, member states and development finance arms. The intent is explicit: offer a trusted, high-standards alternative that aligns with partner priorities without opaque terms or unsustainable debt, while serving Europe’s own resilience in supply chains, energy and secure connectivity.

Two years on, the initiative is no longer just a press release. Brussels hosted the first Global Gateway Forum in 2023; roughly ninety flagship projects were announced, with more added since. Africa is the centre of gravity, anchored by an Africa–Europe package of €150 billion – half of the overall target. The shift is toward bankable pipelines ready for financial close. Concrete partnerships show how Europe can compete by building better rather than bigger. Namibia is a clear example of a double-dividend approach: sustainable raw materials and renewable hydrogen. The EU–Namibia partnership is not a simple offtake dressed up in climate language; it connects port and logistics upgrades, electrolyser capacity, industrial standards and training so that value is added locally. For Namibia, it promises jobs, revenue stability and a place in green value chains rather than the periphery of commodity cycles. Optics matter, but operations matter more: if contracts are transparent, local procurement is meaningful and early-years O&M is ring-fenced, the project will be remembered for performance, not ceremony.

Digital connectivity is........

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