Cooperation with Europe

Parallel to the Prime Minister8217;s visit, a business delegation from India was also there, both in Rome and Lisbon. So both the discussions and results went beyond the agreement on cooperation in the field of tourism which was signed in Italy and India during the Prime Minister8217;s visit.

Politically, the most significant event during the visit to Italy was the Prime Minister8217;s call on His Holiness the Pope. His meeting with Pope John Paul II took place in the context of violence which had occurred against Christians in India perpetrated by certain extremist Hindu organisations. The international church hierarchy, in particular, and Western democracies, in general, were becoming incrementally critical of the Indian government8217;s handling of the situation. There was even some uncertainty on whether a meeting with the Pope would take place. Vajpayee8217;s desire and willingness to meet the Pope was to put the situation in perspective and to assure His Holiness that his government remained committed to the ideals of secularism and respect for all religions and religious communities. The Prime Minister gave the necessary assurances underlining that the perpetrators of violence would be dealt with firmly. There were, however, different impressions about the results of the exchanges between the Pope andVajpayee.

The bilateral agreement with Italy on tourism is all to the good as far as it goes. The point to remember is that tourism and related services in Italy, as in other European countries, is essentially managed by the private sector. The government only plays an encouraging role. This category of cooperation can only mesh if India also gradually lets the private sector take over tourism expeditiously. A governmental stranglehold on tourism and civil aviation in India inevitably reduced the capacity of foreign partners to interact effectively with us because of the contrast between the working methods of the institutions involved in tourism in Europe and in India.

The EU-India Summit was the culmination of a process which commenced in 1992, when the EU-Troika came to India to initiate the first high-level EU-India dialogue. The political, economic and security interaction between India, on the one hand, and Europe as a collectivity, on the other, has been increasing over the last eight years, except for a brief period of six months or so in the immediate aftermath of the Pokharan II tests.

The factors which contributed to the disappearance of inhibitions and limitations affecting relations between India and West European countries, were the end of the Cold War and the resulting strategic and political changes in India8217;s relations with East European countries. Secondly, the economic reforms and liberalisation policies initiated by India. Thirdly, compared to the countries of the ASEAN and China, India was still an unexplored market for investment opportunities for European countries. Fourthly, the countries of the European Union collectively were perceived by India as a major area of economic, investment and technological interest in its foreign policy initiative to diversify relations with important countries. Fifthly, India8217;s acknowledgement that Europe collectively is and will be a power centre in the multipolar world which India wishes to structure in the post-Cold War era.

Europe8217;s significance for India is in the fact that it is a market of nearly 300 million people. As a source for investments and technologies, its potential matches that of North America and Japan. The European Union8217;s influence, in not only the regional but the global security arrangement, is and will become incrementally significant, both in terms of its own collective regional identity and through the United Nations.

Europe8217;s economic and strategic interests in Central Asia and the Gulf impinges on our parallel interests in the same region. The European Union is India8217;s biggest trading partner accounting for nearly 30 per cent of India8217;s international trade, though in overall terms India only accounts for 1.3 per cent of the European Union8217;s foreign trade. There are clear possibilities of expansion of trade with the expanding membership of the EU. It is in this context that there have been regular meetings between the European Troika and Indian delegations over the last eight years.

By 1996, these arrangements were institutionalised with six-monthly discussions being held between Indian officials and their EU counterparts and annual meetings at the ministerial level. Exchanges between the apex economic organisations of the private sector like the CII, FICCI and the ASSOCHAM and their European counterparts have been on the increase. So have contacts between think-tanks and research organisations. The agreement arrived at between Vajpayee and the EU during the Lisbon meeting is only a culmination of the processes of eight years.

Having referred to the positive aspects, we must take note of the limitations and inhibitions which still exist. Though the volume of foreign investments flowing from Europe to India is calculated at 13 billion dollars, only three billion dollars are actually in the operational pipeline. The reasons are both procedural delays on our part and political assessments about India8217;s complementarity to the economic stipulations of Europe in investment matters. Transfers of technology from Europe remains subject to political and strategic restrictions structured under the leadership of the US global non-proliferation and dual use technology policies. India8217;s access to the European market in textiles, certain categories of agricultural goods and services remain subject to undercurrents of protectionism and European import policies.

These are the issues which were addressed by the Prime Minister8217;s delegations with their counterparts during the Lisbon meeting. Even if no conclusive agreements were arrived at, there are signs of greater understanding of Indian interests and concerns and willingness on the EU8217;s part to respond. The European countries8217; general acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the claim of India to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the gradual acceptance of India8217;s nuclear weaponisation are symptomatic of this process.