The case for closer ties between India & Europe

The European Union needs partners such as India to rebuild its capabilities and withstand the triple assault from the US, China, and Russia. Such a partnership will not only enable the continent, but also augment India’s economic, defence, and tech capabilities

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Such is the shock of the geopolitical bank run on Europe today that it is easy to forget that liberal peace on the Old Continent itself is a historical accident. Enabled by the balance-of-power between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union and nourished by decades of strong industrial growth and the common market, building and sustaining the European Union (EU) required constant supervision. Things could have gone south earlier. But it took the troika of Russia's military and political assault, China's industrial and economic assault, and the US's ideological assault for the EU to face a reckoning that seemed impossible but was not. Unsurprisingly, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, who along with European Council President Antonio Costa will be the chief guests at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26, now views India as a “pillar of certainty for Europe in an increasingly uncertain world”. She means it.

India’s own troubles with the US, China, and Pakistan, make it tempting to argue for a pivot towards Europe. Strong India-EU ties could create pathways for stability in an international system under stress. It will afford Brussels and New Delhi more options as they diversify their international partnerships. The tempo, tenor, substance, and urgency of bilateral exchanges, deals, and official statements in recent years clarifies the positive trendline of this story. There is no shortage of sectors in which the two can work together and are indeed starting to open the proverbial files. From trade and tech to defence sales, quantum and Artificial Intelligence to renewables, climate action and counterterrorism to energy, the canvas of mutually beneficial cooperation is large.