Helsinki Workshop “Order in the Indo-Pacific” Successfully Completed

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Photographer: Karl Koli

On 3 April 2024, the University of Helsinki hosted the inaugural workshop of a new collaborative project, ‘Order in the Indo-Pacific: Gauging the Region’s Perspectives on EU Strategies and Constructive Involvement’, at the University’s premises. This workshop is part of a year-long project funded by Stiftung Mercator in Germany. The project seeks to enhance the EU policy community’s understanding and fostering of the Indo-Pacific order through the regional viewpoints of Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. Our team includes Prof. Julie Yu-Wen Chen from the University of Helsinki, Dr. Jagannath Panda from the Institute for Security & Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden; and Richard Ghiasy from GeoStrat, The Netherlands.

The workshop aimed to kick off the project publicly by introducing it, the principal researchers, and analyses of, inter alia, Japan, South Korea, China, and the United States in the current Indo-Pacific order. Jagannath and Richard shared their views on order and disorder in the Indo-Pacific through formal presentations. Dr. Monique Taylor, Senior Researcher at the University of Helsinki, and FIIA Leading Researcher Dr. Bart Gaens also shared perspectives.
Despite unexpected snowfall, the event was well attended by some thirty academics, students, and diplomats from several Indo-Pacific stakeholding missions. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was represented by Ms Eevamaria Mielonen who kindly provided opening remarks.