Development Policy as Geoeconomic Instrument

China's "New Silk Road" created a global competition for participation in growth markets, access to critical raw materials and political influence in developing countries. China's emergence on the geopolitical stage has widened the range of potential donors for recipient countries. This has fuelled the debate on the need to adapt European development cooperation, which is already under pressure to link its objectives more closely to foreign and security policy interests. As a first step, EU and US development cooperation institutions responded by bundling programmes. Western values' and environmental and social standards are now also being emphasised more strongly. Further adjustments to the European institutional architecture must follow. Austria should increase its funding for development policy to the level promised under international law. As a small, open economy, Austria must act in a European network to ensure the effective use of funds and close coordination between national actors.