Pakistan’s obsession with Kashmir must not hold India-EU ties hostage

EU-India relations officially date back to the early 1960s. India’s leadership from independence had a clear perspective on building strong relations with the former European Economic Community (EEC). India never looked at its relations with the EU through the prism of its bilateral relationship with its former coloniser, the United Kingdom. India’s engagement with the EU remains a separate and important pillar of its foreign policy.

Although separated widely by geography as well as history, there are striking parallels in the separate journeys of the EU and India. Both have gone through a unique process of institution building to balance the rights of their citizens with the need for cohesion; they represent the two largest democracies in the world (if one counts the EU as a single member state even after Brexit); culturally and linguistically, they remain among the most diverse regions on the planet.

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Relations which were once focused on trade and development now encompass the political and security environment, scientific and technological development and climate change. This common commitment to democracy and the rule of law, to the market economy and to inclusive development is a defining factor in India-EU relations. Yet, despite these common traits and a long historical connection, the EU rediscovered India only after the Cold War ended.

What adds complexity to building a viable strategic partnership is that conceptually India, post 1947, is regarded as a ‘modern state’, with the attributes of sovereignty, territoriality and raison d’état (justification of sovereignty). In contrast, the EU is considered to be a 'postmodern intrastate entity’ which does not emphasise sovereignty and separation of domestic and foreign affairs and which, after Schengen, increasingly regards borders as irrelevant.

How then did the strategic partnership evolve? How has it adapted to the Trumpian world of disorder and chaos?

Writing in his cell as a political prisoner in fascist Italy under Mussolini after World War I, philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously noted in the ‘Prison Notebooks’: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

In a brilliant article on April 11, 2025, titled ‘Giving Birth to the New International Order’, Jeffrey D Sachs added:

“A century later, we are in another interregnum, and the morbid symptoms are everywhere. The US-led order has ended, but the multi-polar world is not yet born. The urgent priority is to give birth to a new multilateral order that can keep the peace and the path to sustainable development."

In 2026 it seems that the global disorder which is replacing the Westphalia order after World War II is also resulting in increasing global uncertainty and anxiety for the future. In such a situation, can the India/EU partnership make the necessary adjustments and emerge stronger?

India is an emerging power, almost emerged. India is the world’s most populous country, having overtaken China in 2024. India is the world’s third-largest economy measured at international prices (purchasing power parity) at $17 trillion.

This has resulted in the development of new strategic paradigms. It also included our actively promoting the interests of the Global South, becoming a ‘balancing power’. In a hostile neighbourhood with 2 nuclear weapon states, there are few other strategic options for India.

In my book ‘India and the EU: an Insider’s View', it was noted: “A nation’s foreign policy is strongly influenced by its history, geographic location, strategic environment, the imperatives of its neighbourhood and the perception of its own status in the international community. This is true for both India and the EU. Both are pursuing domestic and foreign policy agendas while facing many new global challenges. Their responses are naturally based on their national security templates. Are their responses in tandem with each other? Can they be strategic partners in this new millennium?”

To do so successfully, each side must appreciate the other’s strategic conundrums and avoid crossing invisible red lines. As an example, one could examine the recent EU/Pakistan Joint Communiqué, issued after the visit of the Vice President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas’ visit to Pakistan.

It states:

“The Pakistan side briefed on the issue of J&K. Both sides expressed support to peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy, in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter."

A very important red line, fundamental to the strategic partnership, had been crossed by the EU. It means that the EU has accepted that J&K is an international issue that can legitimately figure in a joint statement between Pakistan and a third party. It implies that J&K remains an unsettled issue territorially. There is the total omission of reference to bilateral agreements. Instead, the EU is accepting the Pakistani formulation that J&K is a conflict which should be resolved in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter.

It resulted in a categorical rejection by a furious MEA spokesperson who stated:

“We categorically reject such unwarranted references in joint press communiqués to matters internal to India. … Those who have no locus standi should desist from making any comment on this."

It is now 26 years since the 1st India-EU Summit was held in Lisbon in June 2000, preceded by a Business Summit in Rome, arranged jointly by CII and FICCI. As JS (EW), I vividly recall how all such potential hiccups were ironed out in discussions in Brussels and Delhi.

Why then should the EU tolerate such a major hiccup in 2026? Was it deliberate? What has changed? Could it be that as an Estonian, Kallas perhaps has a more nuanced approach to this issue and decided to stray away from the well-known EU language on such issues?

Whatever the reasons, Kallas must be surely aware of the vital stakes in energising the India-EU strategic partnership, with an FTA finally concluded after years of negotiations. This landmark pact liberalises tariffs on more than 96% of EU goods entering India.

Let us look at how earlier challenges were successfully addressed.

The evolution of a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional relationship was not an easy one. Europe and India are both similar and dissimilar. Modern Europe can trace its origins to the French Revolution of 1789 and the clarion call for ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’.

India’s freedom struggle also led to the establishment of the world’s largest democratic, multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic state, based on liberty, equality, fraternity, human rights for its citizens and rule of law.

Emerging out of bipolarity and in accordance with European expectations, India and the EU should have become important poles in a multipolar world. Multi-polarity was based on the classical European political theory of balance of power. India has never supported the theory of ‘balance of power’, so dear to classical European diplomacy of the time.

In a Trumpian world, balance of power has been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Today the EU faces a crisis of identity as the EU and Europe move reluctantly from a mono-ethnic and mono-cultural continent to a more multi-ethnic and multi-cultural order.

Do India and Europe now share a similar conception of the world order and its security challenges? Many analysts have pointed out that the West still seeks to preserve a world order shaped like a pyramid where the West is at the top.

Europe seeks assimilation of cultures, while India is attached to accommodation. India seeks a pragmatic and real multipolar balance in a world of civilisational and cultural diversity.

To make the partnership work and to develop a common strategic vision, the EU would need to offer a partnership of equality and understanding based on both hard and soft power. It would need to make the necessary adjustments in this regard.

Can it do so, having caved in to Trump’s pressure tactics and having abandoned its earlier approach of accommodating Russia into a web of economic ties to keep Russia anchored to Europe’s security and economic requirements?

The EU must now look at India as a pivotal and equal anchor for a rules-based order, including in the Indo-Pacific. Will it do so?

In my perception, regardless of temporary hiccups, they will do so. They have no other option. In a global disorder, it will help to maintain international peace and security.

(The author is a former Ambassador of India to the Netherlands. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)