Insights from the 29th Beyond Borders Breakfast Debate "Cross-Border Cooperation in the World"

The 29th edition of the Beyond Borders Breakfast Debate, organised by the Border Focal Point Network, was successfully held on 4 June 2026. The debate focused on cross-border cooperation across the world, in particular the meaning and perception of borders in different continents, presenting successful examples of cross-border cooperation and highlighting differences with cross-border cooperation as it is seen and experienced in the European Union.

Our esteemed host, Andrew Lansley, moderated the discussion, welcoming the panellists and introducing the focus of the session on expanding cross-border cooperation beyond Europe to a global perspective, including examples from the Americas, Africa, and Central Asia. He also outlined the interactive nature of the debate and invited audience participation.

The first speaker, Ms Nathalie Verschelde, Head of Unit D2 'Interreg, Cross-border Cooperation, Internal Borders' at DG REGIO, opened the discussion by outlining the importance of cross-border cooperation within Europe and its broader relevance in addressing shared challenges across regions. She highlighted the work of DG REGIO and the Interreg programme in fostering collaboration across internal borders and set the stage for exploring how these principles and experiences can be extended and shared in a global context.

The next speaker, Dr Laurie Trautman, Director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University (USA), shared her experience on Canada–US cross-border cooperation, highlighting the border’s geographic and functional diversity and the resulting opportunities and challenges. She explained that cooperation in regions such as Cascadia is highly place-based and shaped by local realities, while also reflecting broader differences in national legal and administrative systems. She emphasised the informal, often organic nature of collaboration across the Canada–US border, typically driven by relationships, memoranda of understanding and shared interests. She further noted that cooperation is largely bottom-up, involving subnational governments, Indigenous nations, civil society and the private sector in a multi-layered governance system. Using Cascadia as an example, she described how shared geography, environmental concerns and economic ties, particularly in technology, have fostered strong collaboration between cities like Seattle and Vancouver. At the same time, she cautioned that this flexible and informal model can also be vulnerable due to limited institutionalisation, funding constraints and changing national political priorities.

Following, Dr. Daniel Covarrubias, Director of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University (USA), presented insights from the Laredo–Mexico border region, highlighting its role as one of the busiest trade corridors in the Americas (over $1 billion daily). He described the area as a “living lab” of integration, where extremely high volumes of goods move across the border despite the absence of a shared currency or single market. He emphasised the deep economic interdependence between the United States, Mexico and Canada under USMCA and at the same time, he highlighted the vulnerability created by political uncertainty and shifting tariff regimes. He warned that proposals to replace the trilateral USMCA framework with separate bilateral agreements could increase regulatory complexity, costs and delays, particularly for small and medium-sized firms in cross-border supply chains. In response, he advocated for deeper institutionalisation of North American cooperation, including joint customs coordination, an industrial strategy council and digital interoperability systems.

Next, Mr Jose Maria Cruz, Global Coordinator at the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), outlined the organisation’s work in promoting cross-border cooperation in Europe and its “global initiative” to share knowledge and build partnerships with regions in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. He explained that this initiative connects European border regions with international partners to exchange experience and strengthen cooperation practices. He noted that in Latin America, cross-border cooperation is often constrained by limited supranational support, weak institutional frameworks and, in some cases, political tensions between neighbouring countries, with cooperation frequently relying on informal and locally driven arrangements. Using the Brazil–Argentina–Uruguay triple border as an example, he highlighted a successful model of cooperation around the Uruguay River Basin, where local authorities have created both bilateral and joint structures supported by long-term planning and local ownership. This case demonstrates how strong local leadership and knowledge exchange with Europe can produce effective and sustained cross-border cooperation.

Then it was time to change continent. Our next speaker, Dr. Kehinde A. Bolaji, Resilience Portfolio Adviser at the UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa in Nairobi (Kenya), described African borderlands as “survival spaces” where communities are closely interconnected and rely on daily cross-border movement for basic needs such as trade, water, healthcare and grazing. Despite this interdependence, these regions are often underdeveloped and marginalised, with limited infrastructure and weak state presence. He highlighted the work of the UNDP Africa Borderlands Centre in researching these dynamics and promoting more locally grounded approaches to development. Border regions are often rich in resources, trade and human capital, despite being viewed as peripheral. He then presented a corridor-based development approach in the Great Lakes region, focused on strengthening cross-border institutions, supporting value chains and reducing trade barriers. He concluded by stressing the goal of turning borderlands into productive economic hubs.

Finally, it was the turn of Prof. Sergei Golunov from SDU University in Almaty (Kazakhstan), who questioned the dominance of Eurocentric approaches to cross-border cooperation and argued that Central Asia represents a more “average” global case shaped by landlocked geography and strong state control. He explained that, unlike the European model, cross-border cooperation in Central Asia is largely state-driven, with limited regional autonomy and less formalised institutional frameworks. Cooperation does exist in areas such as transport corridors, logistics, water management and agricultural exchange, but often extends beyond traditional cross-border cooperation and is influenced by broader geopolitical and state-led agendas. He concluded that European frameworks do not always translate well to Central Asian contexts, where governance structures differ significantly, and stressed the need for more context-specific approaches that reflect these realities.

Finally, Nathalie Verschelde concluded by thanking the speakers and reflecting on the wide-ranging discussion on cross-border cooperation across different global contexts. Borders consistently generate interaction and cooperation, despite varying institutional and political settings, remains both necessary and full of learning opportunities. She highlighted key takeaways, including the importance of adapting approaches to local political realities, the value of corridor-based development, the strength of locally driven cooperation and the role of geography and the private sector in shaping cross-border dynamics. She concluded by underlining the importance of continued exchange between policymakers and academics to share experience and inspire new approaches.

The three poll questions that were featured on the debate were:

1. From your perspective as a citizen today, what does a “border” represent? In this open-ended question, ‘opportunity’ was selected as the most frequent response, however terms related to administrative barriers and necessity of dealing with administration were also frequently mentioned.
2. What is in your opinion the greatest benefit of cross-border cooperation? Respondents see economic growth and job creation as the primary benefit of cross-border cooperation, followed by growing recognition of its importance for crisis response and security coordination, while cultural exchange, shared problem-solving and everyday mobility were also highlighted
3. What can we all learn from cross-border cooperation examples around the world? The third poll highlighted “trust” as a key theme in cross-border cooperation, alongside the importance of understanding the specific realities of border regions. It also underscored that much of cross-border cooperation is driven by local communities themselves.