Speaker Bio

Mr Plamen Tonchev has been Head of Asia Unit at the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER), Greece, since 1998. In addition, Plamen has acted as an external expert for the European Commission on a long list of EU missions overseas and primarily to Asia, including to a number of conflict-torn countries. He has published books and articles in academic journals on Europe-Asia relations, and has delivered a number of lectures at European and Asian universities and think-tanks. Mr Tonchev has been working on Chinese studies since the 1990s. He is a founding member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC) and contributor to its annual reports. In addition, Plamen is a member of the Hellenic Association of Chinese Studies (HACS). His latest publication (co-authored), released in August 2025 by IIER, is titled “China in the Security Conundrum of Europe’s Southeastern Periphery”. Recently, Mr Tonchev was hosted by the Institute of National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) in Taipei as a fellow working on relations between the EU and Taiwan.