EUROPE: A KEY ALLY FOR INDIA

India-EU both share a relationship dating back to the 1960’s. India’s rise as an economic, military and political power has led to it moving closer to other developed nations. These nations look at India as a South Asian superpower which is not only a market for the West but also one such power to counter the rise of China. This can be seen in 2018, where EU called India a geopolitical pillar in the multipolar world. Also, an important nation to maintain a balance of power in South Asia or Asia as a whole.

- MANJYOT SINGH TALWAR

Believe it or not the rise of the dragon as an aggressive power has helped the developed nations to understand the importance of this big and powerful elephant in South Asia. And the stronger cooperation between Indo-US, Indo-EU etc. has been one such effect of this.

EU is one of the most powerful blocs, it consists of the most developed 27 European nations. Under the EU these nations share political and economic interests and counter the internal and external disturbances as one bloc. EU represents these 27 developed European nations as one in international organisations like UN and even for international agreements.

Though today, Britain is not part of EU, it has played the role of a catalyst in India-EU cooperation. Let’s just dive deeper into the various facets of the cooperation between India-EU and understand the role of Europe as a key ally for India. Here, for Europe, we will take up EU as a whole while taking Britain not as an EU member but a very important partner of India.

Politico-Diplomatic Dialogue

Politically and at the diplomatic level, India-EU in 1994 signed a cooperation agreement which meant a relationship beyond the commercial partnership. The next step was upgrading their relationship to a strategic level. This was done at the 5th India-EU summit held in 2004. In the last two decades, the graph of their relations has been moving up consistently.