Scripting a third way: The importance of EU-India Partnership

The piece has been authored by Amrita Narlikar.

The European Union (EU) and India should be “natural allies”. Faced with an authoritarian advance on their borders and globally, “the world’s largest democracies” should be collaborating more closely than ever today. But the tango that the EU and India have been dancing is a rather clumsy one. This brief delves into the causes for the limitations of the partnership and identifies critical miscalculations that have been made on both sides. It offers three necessary steps to enable the EU and India to finally get on to the same page, and start scripting the future together.

The EU-India Leaders’ Summit, held in Porto, Portugal, in May 2021 affirmed not only shared interests but also shared “principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights” as underpinning the partnership.(ANI FILE PHOTO)

The European Union (EU) and India must script the future together. The values that both regions cherish—indeed the very way of life—may depend on it.

The EU and India are “natural allies”. They have been strategic partners since 2004 and both are committed democracies. The EU-India Leaders’ Summit, held in Porto, Portugal, in May 2021 affirmed not only shared interests but also shared “principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights” as underpinning the partnership. Besides these long-standing commonalities, diplomatic niceties, and the sweet talk of global summitry though, urgent and new imperatives are also on the rise that demand the joint attention of these two major actors. One key threat is the growing assertiveness of powerful, authoritarian states.

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(The piece has been authored by Amrita Narlikar.)