By (Mrs) Amb Narinder Chauhan
The European Commission President Ursula Van Der Leyen has identified India as the first overseas stop of her new Commission with a professed desire to ‘upgrade’ the strategic partnership with India. India also needs to relook at Europe in an uncertain world. The forthcoming India-EU Summit will provide the opportunity to reshape their relations. As the world’s two largest democracies, the EU and India are united in their commitment to a rules based global order, effective multilateralism, and sustainable development. In 2004, at the 5th India EU Summit, India and EU became strategic partners. 15 India-EU Summits have been held so far.
The steady institutionalization of India-EU relationship, with periodic summit level talks, offers a yearly platform to review progress and set new goals and targets. However, the differences in their political organisation and the geopolitical milieu are stark. While India stands alone as a political actor representing its own national interests, the EU collectively represents 27 countries and is a very effective economic actor. Whereas Europe’s security is underpinned by the transatlantic partnership, India is responsible for its own security with no security guarantor for the region. Building effective multilateralism requires greater accommodation of interests and coordination of policies, and endorsing the changing power configurations. Many EU member states are supportive of India’s position on UNSC reform, but there is no common EU position.
Although some of India’s strategic interests converge with those of the EU, both have varied global aspirations. While India is the only democracy in South Asia and the closest to western democracies, the EU has chosen to lecture India on its human rights record. However, the EU’s proactive engagement with China proves the EU is also driven by realistic considerations on trade. India does not support democracy promotion as the US does a point that also divided the EU on American action in Iraq. Therefore, the EU and India could collaborate on offering economic and political assistance through institutional support and reconstruction such as in Afghanistan.
The EU and India are major energy importers and therefore for securing safe, affordable and sustainable energy supplies is crucial to both. In this context, the India EU energy dialogue needs to go beyond the sharing of views. India and EU have now entered into a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that can yield rich dividends for European companies which will also benefit from the recently announced budget proposal to amend the Indian Nuclear Liability law.
On climate change, while both have common interests and endorse global protocols, the challenges they confront are different. India faces a difficult task in adopting the required standards, given that its main priority is providing development and growth for its expanding population. Assistance in financing the technological gap that India faces can lead to joint efforts to address environmental and developmental concerns, which, however, will be the biggest challenge as it involves the private sector.
The scope of cooperation on social issues is immense since India is at the crossroads of the developed and developing world. As India fosters its economic growth, it is also faced with meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In this context, the EU is supplementing India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
A major challenge lies in enhancing trade and investment flows. Although India has brought down its tariffs, it has to contend with non tariff barriers such as Sanitary and PhytoSanitary (SPS) conditions and extensive procedures for securing export certification to the EU. A review is on the cards by the EU following the Draghi report urging deregulation and simplification of rules to boost innovation and trade.
The EU asserts India’s high tariff barriers are not transparent enough and thus not conducive to creating a trade enabling structure. A major challenge to both is to expand the traditional trade items to include sectors such as services, bio and nano technologies and genomics, where collaboration would deliver greater benefits to both. An ageing society that is also lagging behind in R&D, synergies could be enhanced between India’s large scientific base and the EU supporting R&D projects through more scholarships and a flexible visa regime.
As per EU statistics, EU has re-emerged as India’s largest trading partner with Euro 124 b of trade in goods in 2023 or 12.2% of total trade, topping the US (10.8%) and China (10.5%). The EU is the second largest destination for Indian exports, after the US. Trade in services reached Euro 50.8b in 2023. EU’s FDI in 2022 reached Euro 108.3b, which is significant but way below its investment stocks in China (E247.5b) or Brazil (E 293. 4b). Some 6000 European companies are present in India, providing directly 1.7 m jobs and indirectly 5 m jobs. Airbus, e.g., supplies 80% of Indian civilian aircrafts and Eurocopter will soon start manufacturing helicopters in India. While a comprehensive economic agreement remains inconclusive, confronted as both are with Trump tariffs, enhanced cooperation on the trade front becomes even more imminent.
Europe is an established power, whereas India is seeking to change the status quo in matters of global governance. While the main superpower USA upgrades its relations with India, if the real intention is to contain the rise of China, India does not see itself as a counterweight to China. India’s foreign policy does not contemplate becoming part of a military alliance. In this context India- EU relations become more important. The EU seeks to create a multipolar world in which it identifies India and China as the emerging Asian power centres, and seeks to engage India because of its economic growth. However, there is a deficit in the India-EU relations because Europe’s ability to bring security deliverables to the partnership is extremely limited.
India as an emerging power aims to enhance its soft power with hard power. In contrast, the EU, as a postmodern actor, seeks a new collective identity based on soft power. The EU is the most successful example of regional integration and durable peace between countries and yet the EU’s lack of political cohesion and military prowess has diluted its global political effectiveness. The biggest challenge in assessing the EU as a global economic, political and security actor lies in the fact that it is constantly evolving. India and the EU should enter into a strategic dialogue that leads to concrete action. Translating the potential for cooperation into reality will require strategic vision and political sagacity. In this context, the EU will need to respect India’s strategic autonomy and its freedom to set its own priorities. In effect, the challenge for the India EU strategic partnership is to balance norms and realism.
The author is a former Indian Ambassador. She also served as Counsellor/ Minister dealing with Trade Policy at the Indian Embassy in Brussels, accredited to EU, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of FinancialExpress.com. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.