ABSTRACT
More than seven years into the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sustainable development has been increasingly prominent in cooperation between the European Union (EU) and China within the framework of the BRI. However, despite both being vocal about and supportive of the international agenda of sustainable development, the EU and China differ in their own developmental trajectories, interactive patterns with other countries as well as underlying values and norms. This chapter provides an overview of EU–China cooperation on sustainable development in the context of the BRI. It examines how the divergence and convergence in their sustainable development policies might impact EU–China cooperation for regional sustainability. Based on two case studies focusing on the EU–China Connectivity Platform and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, this chapter concludes that EU–China cooperation contingent on pragmatic interests could transcend norm contestation and conceptual gaps, contributing to regional sustainable development under the BRI.
