India and Europe now seem to recognise each other’s significance
In October alone, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi met his Italian counterpart in Rome; the Danish PM visited Delhi; India conducted a maritime dialogue with the United Kingdom; and undertook wide ranging foreign and security policy consultations with the European Union (EU) along with a review of the strategic partnership. India’s interest in engaging European states, big and small, is unprecedented.
Speaking recently in Slovenia, external affairs minister S Jaishankar admitted that, in the past, Indian diplomacy lacked a nuanced approach to Europe. India saw Europe largely through the Cold War lens of East and West. That Europe had evolved wasn’t reflected in India’s approach. He argued that, now, India is making a conscious effort to “engage with all 27 European states and with Europe as a collective”.
India’s engagements substantiate this assertion. Not only has Delhi increased its outreach to Paris and Berlin since 2016, it has put a huge effort in repairing the often lacklustre and, at times, rocky relationship with EU in Brussels. It is also keenly engaging with Europe’s sub-regions such as the Nordic countries, central and eastern Europe. Conversations have also evolved beyond cultural and education exchanges to cutting-edge technologies, defence, manufacturing, maritime security, green partnerships, and trade and investment.
Europeans have reciprocated this interest. For instance, in May, the EU invited India for a one of kind meeting, including all 27 European heads of State. This format has only ever been offered to the United States. Europe’s interest in India is driven not just by the size of the Indian market but also a belated recognition of its geopolitical significance in the Indo-Pacific. In just the past year, the EU-India conversation has broadened to strategic issues such as 5G, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, maritime security in the Indian Ocean, partnership on infrastructure, besides regular foreign, security and defence consultations.
The first ever naval drills between the Indian Navy and the EU’s Atalanta Mission took place in the Gulf of Aden this year. As it made its way through the Indo-Pacific, the German frigate Bayern also did its first passing exercise with the Indian Navy.
While AUKUS captured headlines in India, the release of EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which accords India a place of prominence, ironically got little attention. The EU will never play an important role in military security, but its Indo-Pacific strategy has much to complement New Delhi’s goals in the region. On defence and security too, the EU wants to push for an enhanced naval presence in the region, focus more on the Indian Ocean, and increase security cooperation with India, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
India and Europe now seem to have a mutual recognition of each other’s strategic significance. The one big hurdle, from New Delhi’s perspective, is Europe’s approach to and assessment of the China challenge. Here too, European debates have evolved much more than the foreign policy establishment in Delhi often recognises. EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, for instance, outlines a “multifaceted approach” to China, including not just cooperation but also pushing back where fundamental disagreements exist. It even leaves the door open to working with other partners and coalitions such as Quad, when dealing with some Chinarelated challenges. While not exactly on the same page, India and Europe have much to talk about on the issue.
As Jaishankar pointed out, a stronger European interest and presence in the IndoPacific is welcome in New Delhi. When it comes to countering China’s economic and political influence in the region, Europe has the economic and technological heft to be an important partner. While India’s outreach to Europe has not always been linear, New Delhi is beginning to realise that Europe can be an important partner in building India’s domestic capacities and resilience and meeting its foreign policy goals.