Global trade uncertainties, US role redefine ties with EU

AFTER nearly two decades of stalled negotiations, the sudden political momentum behind the India-European Union trade agreement is less about tariffs alone and more about a rapidly shifting geoeconomic order.

- JAYANTH JACOB @New Delhi

AFTER nearly two decades of stalled negotiations, the sudden political momentum behind the India-European Union trade agreement is less about tariffs alone and more about a rapidly shifting geoeconomic order.

As global trade fragments under the weight of strategic rivalry, sanctions, and protectionism, New Delhi and Brussels have found compelling reasons to move faster and closer. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s declaration of the pact as the “mother of all deals” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s description of it as “historic” reflect more than diplomatic hyperbole.