Opinion The familiar world order will not return. What India and EU can build
India and Europe need to turn the turbulence of a world in transition into a tide of opportunities that steers their nearly 2 billion people, living in democracy and diversity, to a future of resilience, security and prosperity.
Technology determines power and leadership, but its use also shapes the character of our society and world. India and Europe can collaborate to gain self-sufficiency in the building blocks of the digital age such as artificial intelligence The visit by European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as chief guests for India’s Republic Day celebrations and the EU-India Summit on January 27 come in the context of New Delhi’s rapidly rising engagement with the EU and its members. In her new term, von der Leyen’s first visit outside Europe was to India in February 2025, accompanied by the entire cabinet or College of Commissioners. Visits by leaders of member states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s travels have also strengthened ties across Europe.
This could be a moment of enormous global consequence. US President Donald Trump has untethered the long-adrift transatlantic relationship from its anchors of security, economics, and values. His posturing on Greenland has injected hostility. This, together with the Russia-Ukraine war, economic pressure from China, crumbling multilateralism and fragmenting global economic and energy systems, has put unprecedented strategic pressure on the EU.
Yet, Europe has shown cohesion and resolve on multiple issues, including the Ukraine war. From the crises, it is now seeking to build a new sovereign future, independent of the US. It has the intellectual, industrial, and financial capacity for the task. It also needs new alliances and trusted partnerships of complementarity, not competition. India would be an obvious choice.
India, too, is at a moment of reckoning. Many of the trends and forces that are affecting Europe have forced reappraisal of India’s strategic bets, exerted stress on the framework of its global engagement and raised risks and barriers for national economic transformation.
Adjustments often follow a J-curve. Short- term costs can yield to long-term gains with the right strategy. India’s response to the shifts has many dimensions: Rapidly adding to domestic capacities, affirming strategic autonomy, reframing traditional relationships, expanding plurilateral engagement and diversifying partnerships to mitigate risks and build influence. A partnership with Europe touches each dimension of India’s strategy. The value of a relationship is not just in the strength of a partner, but in the need it fulfils and the benefits it brings. India’s extensive European outreach and the EU’s New Strategic EU-India Agenda 2025 signal a higher level of mutual priority.
Of the greatest consequence is the expected conclusion of the EU-India free trade agreement (FTA). Pursued and abandoned more than a decade ago, it was resurrected with greater ambition and scope in 2021. Growth in the EU’s trade with India, and its FDI stock in the latter,
is already among the fastest in the Indo-Pacific region. The trend reflects growing trade-investment linkages and ongoing adjustments in the supply chains in response to geopolitical risks. The negotiations are nearly complete. The high-quality FTA will address the compelling need to diversify trade and investment, deepen India’s integration into global value chains, stimulate the development of resilient supply chains, and foster greater industrial and technological collaboration. This will enhance the viability of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) — the great new strategic initiative that reprises an old India-Europe corridor.
Technology determines power and leadership, but its use also shapes the character of our society and world. India and Europe can collaborate to gain self-sufficiency in the building blocks of the digital age, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors. That can help prevent a global duopoly. India and Europe also converge on the public character and purpose of digital technology. Indeed, science, technology, and innovation should drive the partnership to lead industries of the future, address global priorities, and support development in the Global South. Guided by this vision, the two sides are building a comprehensive mobility programme of higher ambition for students, scholars, and scientists.
EU-India relations are built on India’s deep ties with key member states. France has been a strong and reliable strategic partner for decades, from consistent support in the UN to long-standing defence, nuclear, and space collaboration. Germany, a major economic partner, is developing stronger defence and strategic cooperation with India. Spain and Italy, too, are prioritising India. The Nordic countries are the new frontiers of India’s engagement. Attention is now turning to the strategically important and dynamic east.
Europe has emerged as India’s major partner in advanced defence platforms. Europe, seeking to rearm itself, and India, pursuing atmanirbharta (self-reliance), will benefit from the scale that collaboration in development, production and supply chains brings. New domains of conflict such as maritime, underwater, space, and cyberspace call for cooperation in operations, capacity-building, and global regulation. Countering terrorism must be an essential element of the security partnership. Beyond technical and intelligence cooperation, it must also focus on the sources of terrorism, especially in Pakistan.
India and Europe can together play a bigger role in addressing the challenges of our times: Recourse to power over norms, the perilous course of our planet, the arrested future of the Global South, growing global fragmentation, emasculated multilateralism, fragile security in the Indo-Pacific, and seemingly intractable Eurasian security challenges. The two can, thus, influence the evolution of a new multipolar global order that will arise from the broken present — one of greater diversity, but still underpinned by the rule of law and collective choices.
There are challenges. That includes carving out influence in a world buffeted by the major powers. The EU must remain cohesive and united, with sovereign capabilities and an independent foreign and security policy. India’s relationship with Russia and Europe’s relations with China cast a shadow of concern. The two sides have clashed in multilateral forums and on political and human-rights issues. Negative public perceptions and narratives on both sides impose constraints. There is a need for continuous engagement and greater mutual sensitivity and respect, collaboration over censure, and dialogue over prescription.
The familiar world order that shaped national choices will not return, even if a change of political actors on the global stage raises hopes. India and Europe need to turn the turbulence of a world in transition into a tide of opportunities that steers their nearly 2 billion people, living in democracy and diversity, to a future of resilience, security and prosperity.
The writer, a retired ambassador, currently serves as chairman of Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). Views are personal
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