This paper aims to analyze comparatively EU’s, China’s and India’s diverging designs for the governance of Africa. The paper addresses one fundamental research question: to what extent do the Chinese and Indian competing African policies constrain the European interregional strategy towards Africa? Building on Heiner Haenggi’s categorization, the paper investigates the extent to which the emergence of new paradigms of interregionalism (promoted by India and China) might impact on the re-defined EU-Africa interregional development partnerships. The paper submits that the EU’s, India’s and China’s respective regional and interregional policies are generating a competitive “politics of interregionalism” in the African context, where the EU is seeking to perform as a credible “normative power”. In a systemic perspective, the EU is undoubtedly called to face the challenge rising from alternative models of interregional cooperation.
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