The West’s late interest in infrastructure

How much things have changed in 15 years! In 2008, a Chinese state-owned company, COSCO, bought the port of Piraeus. Its competitor, a Hong Kong-based multinational corporation. No Western company has shown interest in the largest Greek port. The then Karamanlis government proceeded with the agreement with China in the context of expanding the country’s geopolitical bases, but also because there was no other interested “player”. It was absolutely the right move, for its time. There were no substantial reactions afterward.

Today, the corresponding agreement would have raised a lot of “dust” and reactions from both Europe and the United States. Already in recent years, European and American media have dealt with two major Greek ports, Piraeus due to China and Thessaloniki due to the participation of a businessman who usually resides in Russia. In the case of Piraeus, they point to the Chinese penetration into Europe and call it a “dragon head” trying to penetrate it.

There is no doubt that in today’s Cold War environment, it would be very difficult for these two trades to become impossible. The German government faced great pressure when it was about to sell a large stake in the port of Hamburg to Cusco. Feedback from Brussels and within the government in Berlin forced her to drastically reduce the percentage sold to the Chinese.

When Germany sells part of the port of Hamburg to China, it is somewhat difficult to criticize Greece.

But when Germany sells part of the Hamburg station to China, it is somewhat difficult to criticize Greece.

The other issue is where…the West was when these deals were made. A former Greek prime minister often recounts phone calls with counterparts in Paris and Berlin to secure interest from business giants in some privatizations involving the country’s strategic infrastructure. The response was stereotypical: “They have shareholders and independent management, we can’t tell them what to do.” But a French leader also at one point told Merkel: “You understand that with what we are doing in Greece, forcing them to sell everything, driving them into the arms of the Chinese, Piraeus will only be the beginning.”

We are now in a cold war with both Russia and China. Brussels and Washington are pushing for a stifling institutional framework that would keep these two superpowers away from Western infrastructure. The question is, of course, whether they will find solutions. Why not have a free globalized system, where any country or company can “access” to a port or airport, and at the same time want to retain control of all your infrastructure. At the end of the day, someone is going to have to shell out the money to buy it when it comes up for sale or long-term lease.