The EU and Japan have signed an ambitious deal to build infrastructure and set development standards in joint projects around the world, in a riposte to China’s far-reaching Belt and Road Initiative.
The so-called connectivity partnership will cover sectors from transport to digital industries as part of a wider effort to revive multilateral co-operation in the face of the US withdrawal from international agreements such as the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change accord.
The agreement was signed in Brussels on Friday by Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, and Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president. It dovetails with EU plans to deploy €60bn to leverage investments of many times that value to improve ties between Europe and Asia.