Global Gateway

• This year marks the 20th anniversary of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and has witnessed frequent high-level exchanges between China and the EU.
• "China and the EU should uphold the apt description of their relationship as a comprehensive strategic partnership," Xi said at Thursday's meeting.
• Echoing Xi, Michel and von der Leyen noted that the EU does not want to decouple from China.
• "Chinese modernization and European integration are strategic choices that China and Europe have made, respectively, with the future in mind," said Xi.

• TOKYO, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Automation Anywhere , the leader in intelligent automation solutions that put artificial intelligence (AI) to work across every aspect of an organization, announced the launch of a Global Gateway Program with Robo Co-Op to empower refugees with digital skills and ultimately expand job inclusion opportunities for digital career development.
• As the global job market undergoes significant transformation with a continued need for improved productivity, the Global Gateway Program offers refugees reskilling and upskilling opportunities fit for the age of intelligent automation.
• The Global Gateway Program provides a curriculum to teach automation skills, along with a social impact scholarship program offering courses and certificates offered by Automation Anywhere.
• Automation Anywhere and Robo Co-Op's shared goal for the Global Gateway Program is to upskill 100 refugees over the next three years.

• The " New Agenda to strengthen the EU's partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean," lays out Europe's goals for reinvigorating political and economic ties.
• "This investment benefits not only Latin America and the Caribbean, but also the European Union, at a time of many shared priorities.
• While in Brussels, the IDB delegation met with leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe, including from key private-sector companies such as Nokia and Siemens.
• Over the past year alone, the European Commission has allocated $35.5 million in grants for IDB projects, from health to trade.

• This meeting is important for both regions but, especially for Europe, given the current geopolitical pressures it is facing.
• We live in a world in transition towards a new model that is still uncertain after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Several concerned Latin American countries requested the summit be suspended and called on CELAC to speak out against Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

Cooled relations

• The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the Spanish presidency are the main factors that reactivated the EU-CELAC relationship at the highest level.
• The first two highlighted some of the EU’s major structural threats and weaknesses in terms of military dependence on NATO, Europe’s essential defence base, strategic industrial dependence and energy dependence – especially on Russia.

Spain takes the initiative

• In this context of European vulnerability, the Foreign Affairs Council of 18 July 2022 agreed to “promote a qualitative leap in relations between the EU and LAC countries”, with Spain taking the initiative to hold the summit under its presidency of the EU Council.
• It also includes green and digital alliances within the framework of the Global Gateway investment strategy.
• The EU needs a real strategic relationship with LAC, however complex and heterogeneous the region may be.
• However, it cannot accompany it in the application of sanctions – its strategic vulnerability can’t assume the cost of sanctions.

What success would look like

• The main success factor of the summit will be the abandonment of Eurocentrism.
• Taking that into account, the international value of Latin America and the Caribbean in the developing global scenario is incalculable.