The second Trump administration has intensified the global reshuffling of geoeconomic alliances following China’s phenomenal industrial growth and its near domination of new technology markets. While it increasingly feels like a new superpower tussle, middle powers and developing countries can still choose from multiple alignments and derisking strategies better aligned with their specific development and security goals.
With the Competitiveness Compass, the EU has recognised that it’s lagging in global competitiveness, meaning that it plans to shift from a development-focused role to ‘open strategic autonomy’, namely prioritising its own re-industrialisation.
Enter the Global Gateway, increasingly the subject of intense debate in Brussels. That’s why the second Global Gateway Forum planned for mid-October 2025 will be fundamental in defining its future trajectory.
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