How India-EU ties gain renewed relevance in a turbulent world

Relations between India and the European Union (EU) have been shaped by the fast-changing global power politics in the early 1990s with the end of the Cold War, the subsequent reunification of Germany, and the collapse of erstwhile regimes in Eastern Europe. While the India-EU Cooperation Agreement was signed in 1994, a decade later, in 2004, both sides signed a strategic partnership agreement.

The Joint Action Plan, which has been in operation since 2005, has been instrumental in identifying as well as in resolving divergent viewpoints on matters ranging from the scope and objectives of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and market access, greenhouse gas emissions, civil nuclear energy, etc.

In spite of geopolitical turbulence and differing perspectives, including on the Ukraine issue and the buying of Russian oil, and differing interpretations in defining the contours of core national interest and strategic autonomy, what is remarkable is the resolute stands taken by both India and the EU in the creation of trust surplus initiatives, a pragmatic, forward-looking approach, and a strong political will by the top leadership on both sides in taking the relationship to newer heights.

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Trade and Economy

The EU is India’s second-largest trading partner, accounting for trade in goods worth €120 billion in 2024, which is 11.5 per cent of India’s total trade. From the EU’s side, India is its 9th largest trading partner, with 2.4 per cent of the EU’s total trade in goods in 2024, well behind the US (17.3 per cent) and China (14.6 per cent). Trade in goods between the EU and India has increased by nearly 90 per cent in the last decade, with over 6,000 European companies operating in India.

What can take the trade volume significantly higher between India and the EU is having a comprehensive, inclusive, transparent, non-discriminatory, fair and reasonable, and time-bound agreement with appropriate regulatory and business ethics in place. There is a forecast that a meaningful Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement between India and the EU can take the investment level to over $100 billion and create 1 million jobs in the next few years.

Defence Cooperation

Both India and the EU are committed to forging closer collaboration on defence-related matters, particularly on maritime cooperation. Both sides are on the same page on freedom of navigation, curbing maritime piracy, adherence to UNCLOS (United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea), the development of the blue economy and diversified maritime infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific theatre.

India and the EU have also been engaged in the Maritime Security Dialogue since 2021, which may pave the way for more joint plans of action in the coming years. India and the EU conducted joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Aden in June 2021 and in the Gulf of Guinea in October 2023. The Indian Navy participated in the Maritime Partnership Exercise in August 2022 with the EUNAVFOR Atlanta.

India and the EU also took part in the humanitarian assistance operations off the coast of Somalia in 2018 and 2019. Similarly, India and the EU, since 2023, are proactive partners in the Indo-Pacific region, such as in the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). One area that the EU can look at is by examining and exploring the feasibility of having a co-production in India’s defence sector.

For example, Brahmos, the highly supersonic missile with robust defence and offensive capabilities for the land, air, and sea-based variants and which is being increasingly courted by various nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and others, could be a starting point.

The EU, India and the Imec Connection

The EU Global Gateway that was launched in 2021 is the first of its kind mobilisation of $300 billion in public and private funding, with the focus areas being energy, health, digital technology, education, and sustainable development. Global Gateway can align with the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (Imec) initiative that was launched at the G20 summit in Delhi in 2023.

For the EU, with emphasis on de-risking from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Imec provides an ideal outlet for assured supply chains, greater leeway in energy and transport diversification and in creating resilient trade partnerships across the EU group of nations. For India, with the EU on board, it provides a viable logistic and manufacturing hub linking India, the GCC/West Asia and Europe.

Further collaborative initiatives may include enhanced port facilities, augmenting naval and maritime logistics, green transport systems, digital corridors, data connectivity, customs regulations harmonisation, secured energy grids and pipelines, new fibre optic cables, etc.

The EU may need to create a single nodal agency aligning with Imec objectives, including a corpus of Imec funds for integrating all 27 EU member states. Already ports such as Piraeus (Greece), Marseille (France), and Messina and Trieste (Italy) are vying for integrating Imec’s proposed sea, road, and rail networks. The EU’s regulatory and logistic capacity are likely to resolve issues such as long-term financing of Imec projects, customs alignment, etc.

Educational and People-to-People Exchange

The India-EU partnership puts ‘people-to-people’ exchanges at the forefront for generating deeper understanding through high-end educational outreach. Forums such as Erasmus+ and the European Research Council facilitate student/research scholar mobility, research collaboration between major Indian universities and research institutes with their counterparts in the EU, and working on shared goals like sustainability, climate change, Stem, AI, critical and emerging technologies, youth exchange, striving for gender equity, public policy, food security, etc. What is needed in the near term is further easing of visa restrictions for entry into the EU and for creating more opportunities for Indian students and researchers to undertake teaching, training and research in their respective academic and research domains, which will be beneficial to both sides.

The European organisation for nuclear research, Cern, the world’s leading particle physics laboratory in 2017, can be an area of immense interest to Indian researchers. India and the EU are both signatories to the ITER Agreement, the international treaty signed in 2006, and collaborate on the experimental fusion reactor facility. Two recent Indian educational initiatives, namely the Global Initiative for Academic Network (Gian) and the New Education Policy (NEP)-2020, are also instrumental in tapping international faculty and researchers, including those from the EU, and in establishing campuses inside/outside India. These collaborative arrangements help in fostering global fraternity and in creating stronger EU-India academic networks. These initiatives will bring dynamism to educational outreach beneficial to both India and the EU.

The Way Forward

Both India and the EU may benefit each side immensely by having strategic diversification and expansion in multiple sectors, including trade, economy, defence cooperation, the Imec initiative, people-to-people exchange, etc. In a multipolar world with a strong dose of interdependency in the highly surcharged global environment and with multiple global churnings and tumult always in an evolving state, perhaps both India and the EU can reap maximum leverage by capitalising upon each other’s respective strengths and their potential for further growth.

(Mohammed Badrul Alam is Director of Research; Professor and Head, Department of Political Science (Retd), Faculty of Social Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)