Brussels – It has become a lonely world for Europe. With the Transatlantic Alliance in tatters, China losing its brilliance and Russia being Russia, the EU is looking for new friends. Ursula von der Leyen bets that she will find them on the subcontinent.
The chairman of the commission, joined by 21 commissioners, went to New Delhi on Thursday in order to, within the framework of the EU, of “strengthening links” with the fifth world economy.
The trip occurs while the block pushes to improve commercial partnerships with a number of key countries, including Mercosur and Southeast Asia.
The second council of the EU-Indre Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will be part of the visit, one of the only two formats of this type, the other being a bilateral EU forum in the United States, will be part of the visit.
“A new look for greater cooperation, to be clear, has already been identified and planned a certain time ago,” said an EU responsible for preparations for journalists.
“But the time of this visit is, of course, particularly interesting given the world developments that we face,” added the official.
“Strategic priority”
In their preparations, the Commission told EU ambassadors that it considered the relationship with India as a “strategic priority,” said sources familiar with talks.
A disclosed work program of the 2025 commission, previously seen by Euractiv, said that the Bloc’s executive should present a new EU-India strategic program in the spring.
The two parties should boast “the deepening of bilateral relations” and “increasing strategic convergence” between the EU and India, according to a TTC declaration project presented by Euractiv.
EU officials say The block should explore the means to cooperate more closely on security and defense and consider mutual advantages of improving economic relations, in particular the improvement of supply chains and direct foreign investment.
They also say that the higher commitment to the security program in the Indo-Pacific region is in the cards.
“They are fundamentally interested in a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific. But in the same way, we think of the border progression of Russia in Ukraine as being fundamentally linked to the Eurasian and Eastern security process,” added the official.
“India management must also tackle a new complex and unpredictable era in the development of American policies,” James Crabtree, Euractiv.
“Given events in Washington, stronger links with Europe can provide a useful balance while India continues to go to bed between the major global powers,” he added.
Connection of Russia
The elephant in the room, however, will be the narrow links of New Delhi with Moscow.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia twice in 2024, and President Vladimir Putin is expected to make the favor this year.
Since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine Russia, Western partners have criticized the country’s continuous friendly approach, the Indian government’s decision not to condemn the invasion and its refusal to join international sanctions against Russia.
A potential breakthrough in American-Russian peace talks on Ukraine could give Europe a new lever to bring India closer to the West.
But for the moment, a major European grievance is that despite Western sanctions, Indian refineries have benefited from the reduction of oil prices in Russia. New Delhi has helped transform Russian crude oil into diesel and gasoline for the world market – and with that, Feed Moscow’s War Machine.
EU officials informed of preparations told journalists that the European team plans to raise the question of applying sanctions with their Indian counterparts, but added that they do not expect Russian oil to present these talks too much.
“We must also stop beating India on oil purchases in Russia, but it is the wrong target – because all refined products go to European buyers,” said an EU diplomat.
“Instead, we have to beat them over high -tech exports to Russia – later they know they have a problem,” added the diplomat.
Although Russia has been the main supplier of defense equipment For the past two decadesWith 65% of weapons purchases from the country provided by Moscow, New Delhi recently made efforts to gradually reduce its dependence in Moscow in this area.
In the long term, EU diplomats believe that part of a more strategic agreement with New Delhi could replace some of them by offering European alternatives. France, for its part, has taken such measures with a recent agreement of several billion dollars to provide India French fighter planes.
An improvement in relations between Russia and China, including accelerated military cooperation and an increase in Russian weapons supplies, made New Delhi in New Delhi.
“If we are intelligent, we can also use it to our advantage by saying” Look, your enemy is our enemy “- then cooperate closer,” said a second EU diplomat.
Revival of commercial talks?
Different opinions on trade, which have progressed only slowly in recent years, are probably a key obstacle to closer links.
Brussels and New Delhi took over the talks in 2022 after more than eight years of negotiations in standby on an EU-India trade agreement (ALE), the renewed push drawn mainly by the desire of the EU countries to relax more and more from China.
For the EU, a free trade agreement with India would adapt to the strategy of the block consisting in increasing commitment with the Indo-Pacific Region.
But slow progress in establishing the three working groups including tax – on strategic technologies; digital, green and energy technologies; And the resilient value chains, trade and investment – which have taken almost a year, have somewhat hampered the enthusiasm that tangible results can be obtained quickly, according to officials on both sides.
Supporters of an agreement said they were betting that better access to the vast Indian market could reduce block dependence on China.
However, EU officials emphasize that the concept of replacing commercial volumes by Beijing is poor framing for the recent thrust and is not exact with the type of goods involved.
An agreement could see increased imports of essential products from India, such as planes, electric machines, chemicals and diamonds, as well as better standardization in the digital services sector.
The EU also put pressure for lower prices to have better access to Indian markets for its exports of cars, alcoholic beverages and food products such as cheese.
India, on the other hand, is seen as a benefit more in services and would like easier EU visa access for Indian professionals. New Delhi is also considering a competitive advantage for key exports to the EU – clothing, steel, petroleum products, electric machines and pharmaceuticals.
The leaders on both sides had once said optimistic that the objective was to conclude an agreement before the voters in India and through the EU going to the polls in 2024.
However, little progress has been made since then, the Indian authorities accusing the EU for what it called “irrational” standards both on agriculture and environmental protection.
Another major obstacle remains agriculture. The differences between the two systems – and their strategic importance for jobs and the economy – are, indeed, Stark.
India, which houses almost 18% of the world’s population, has contributed its agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors 16% GDP from 2023. These sectors also employ 44% of the workforce. On the other hand, the EU agricultural sector employs only 5% of its workers and represents 1.3% of GDP.
Sugar is one of the many products that could become a sour point. Some EU member states, like GermanyBelieve that agriculture should be excluded from a free trade agreement to accelerate negotiations and that the emphasis should rather be moved to industry and technology.
New Delhi is not a fan of this approach, to say it slightly, because the leaders see agriculture as the backbone of any agreement.
Indian Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, said in October that a free trade agreement could only be agreed to access the country’s dairy sector.
With standby conferences, some diplomats members of the EU state have indicated They would be increasingly open to obtaining a less ambitious affair on the line which focuses on technological and industrial transactions, as this would guarantee European companies a branch of the interior investments of India.
* Thomas Moller-Nielsen contributed the reports.
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