{"id":419746,"date":"2025-02-25T18:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T17:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/25\/visita-collegio-vdl-india-modi\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T20:14:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:14:34","slug":"southeast-passage-von-der-leyens-bet-on-modis-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/25\/southeast-passage-von-der-leyens-bet-on-modis-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast passage: von der Leyen’s bet on Modi’s India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – In a changing world<\/strong>, and one that offers less and less certainty now that Donald Trump<\/strong> is back in the White House, the EU is looking for new partners. And it strengthens cooperation with states that, like Narendra Modi<\/strong>‘s India, are gaining increasing weight in the international arena. Thus, the first official visit of the EU executive abroad<\/strong> will be to New Delhi<\/strong>. No formal initiative is expected to be launched, but it will be an opportunity to tangibly demonstrate the intention to tie the fate of the Twenty-Seven<\/strong> to that of the rising Asian power<\/strong>, in order to limit the damage of the unilateral decisions taken by the U.S. president.<\/p>\n

Strategic Partnership<\/h3>\n

It was January 21 when,\u00a0<\/span>from the stage of the Davos World Economic Forum<\/a>, the head of the European Commission,\u00a0<\/span>Ursula von der Leyen,<\/strong>\u00a0announced that\u00a0<\/span>she would be travelling to India<\/strong>\u00a0to meet with Prime Minister\u00a0<\/span>Narendra Modi<\/strong>\u00a0and the rest of his government.<\/span>\u00a0The date chosen is at the end of the month<\/a>, specifically Thursday, February 27 and Friday, February 28 (although the first of the two days will be devoted almost entirely to travel). 21 out of 27 commissioners will be present, including the President herself.<\/p>\n

Brussels’ goal is to define the new strategic agenda<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0(re)set relations with New Delhi<\/strong>, which is expected to be officially adopted during the next\u00a0EU-India Summit<\/strong>\u00a0scheduled for the year’s second half<\/span>. Therefore, Friday’s meetings\u2014which will include a series of bilateral meetings not only between von der Leyen and Modi but also between the EU commissioners and their Indian counterparts\u2014are not dedicated to making specific commitments but to advancing dialogue\u00a0<\/strong>on crucial issues within the framework of the strategic partnership launched back in 2004<\/strong>. “2025 will be the year of EU-India relations,” assured an EU official.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2025 (photo: World Economic Forum via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Security<\/h3>\n

Trade, competitiveness, security, and defence, among other issues, will be discussed. Another official pointed out that India is crucial to the\u00a0Old Continent’s de-risking<\/strong>\u00a0strategy<\/strong>\u00a0to “increase our resilience<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0diversify investment.<\/strong>”\u00a0Moreover, the Asian country is “one of those great powers with whom we would like to join forces” to ensure the resilience of the\u00a0<\/span>international security system<\/strong>, especially in light of the\u00a0<\/span>Russian war of aggression in Ukraine,<\/strong>\u00a0which<\/span>\u00a0entered<\/a>\u00a0its fourth year yesterday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Commission points out that the Ukraine chapter is important, especially regarding the\u00a0restrictive measures imposed on the Kremlin<\/strong>\u00a0and their enforcement. New Delhi is suspected of\u00a0buying<\/strong>\u00a0some of the\u00a0EU-sanctioned crude oil<\/strong>\u00a0from Moscow and letting\u00a0European aeronautical material<\/strong>\u00a0into the Federation. Still, according to official advances, this issue is not expected to be addressed in Friday’s talks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eurasian and Indo-Pacific security are linked<\/strong>, the refrain at the Berlaymont sounds, and therefore, dialogue with New Delhi\u2014considered “a champion and a sponsor of peace”\u2014is essential. After all, cooperation is already active in some areas, including counterterrorism and crisis management, while collaboration should soon expand to include cybersecurity and space<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Volodymyr<\/a>
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (photo: Sergei Supinsky\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James Crabtree<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0<\/span>European Council on Foreign Relations<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(ECFR)<\/strong>, a Brussels-based think tank investigating international politics, has told <\/span>Eunews<\/em>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0“<\/strong><\/span>both Europe and India are in<\/span><\/span> a moment of urgent strategic recalibration”\u00a0<\/strong>due to the second Trump presidency.\u00a0The analyst argues that it is hard to imagine a better time to<\/span>\u00a0revitalize the historically unsound ties\u00a0<\/strong>between the two sides since, with the tycoon in power, the United States is “capricious again” (from customs tariffs to disrupting European security policy).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Business Dialogue<\/h3>\n

In the trade area, an important element will be the dialogue on the progress toward the conclusion of the\u00a0<\/span>Free Trade Agreement<\/strong> (FTA), whose negotiations began in 2007, were halted in 2013, and <\/span>recovered after eight years<\/a>\u00a0in May 2021.<\/span> Among the points on which there is still no agreement are, above all, the barriers (customs and non-customs) to trade<\/strong> between the two economies\u2014particularly with respect to some key products such as automobiles<\/strong> and alcoholic beverages<\/strong>\u2014that are unbalanced, being higher for European companies seeking to export to India. One of the bilateral meetings to watch will be the one between Brussels’ trade Commissioner, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong>, and India’s minister Piyush Goyal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

During the College’s visit to New Delhi, the Trade and Technology Council (TTC)\u00a0<\/strong>will also meet for the second time, following the first meeting in May 2023.\u00a0Representing the Union will be the Commission’s Executive Vice-President in charge of Technology Sovereignty,\u00a0Henna Virkkunen<\/strong>, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and the head of Research and Innovation,\u00a0Ekaterina Zaharieva<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0Among the main goals of the EU-India TTC is to strengthen collaboration on digital transition<\/strong>, clean technologies<\/strong>, investment<\/strong> and trade<\/strong>. Specifically, the focus will be on digital infrastructure and value chain resilience.<\/p>\n

\"Maro\u0161<\/a>
Trade Commissioner Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d (photo: European Parliament)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clean Technology Innovation<\/h3>\n

There will also be talk of technological development<\/strong>, a central theme for India, which will host the next World Summit on Artificial Intelligence<\/strong>, after having\u00a0co-presented<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/a>the<\/span>\u00a0one in Paris on Feb. 11. Cooperation in this area, from AI to clean technologies via research and innovation<\/strong>, will underpin the growth of advanced economies in the near future. This, at least, is the reading of the Commission, which,\u00a0at the end of January, unveiled<\/a> its Competitiveness Compass<\/strong> with which it intended to translate into practice the recommendations contained in the report presented last September by Mario Draghi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Indian market is a bonanza that Brussels is not willing to give up, for example, regarding its potential in the field of\u00a0green technologies<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0decarbonisation<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/em>New Delhi, together with Paris, is, for example, co-founder of the\u00a0International Solar Alliance<\/strong><\/em>, which is expected to mobilize 1 trillion by the end of the decade. By contrast, exchanges on the European border carbon adjustment mechanism (the\u00a0CBAM<\/strong>), about which India is sceptical, are not on the agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grey area<\/h3>\n

But while Brussels celebrates cooperation with the world’s most populous democracy, several critical issues in the relationship with New Delhi are also present. These start precisely with Modi’s ambiguous stance toward\u00a0Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s Russia and\u00a0Xi Jinping<\/strong>‘s China, the twelve-star club’s arch-enemy and strategic adversary, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Xi<\/a>
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left), Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Brics summit in Kazan, October 23, 2024 (photo: Grigory Sysoev via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The confidence<\/strong> with which the premier moves on the\u00a0international chessboard<\/strong> (India is one of the founders of the BRICS and presents itself as a champion of the global South, but balances between Western powers) could create embarrassment for the EU. Still, von der Leyen has amply demonstrated<\/a> to be capable of great pragmatism<\/strong>, even if critics denounce it as double standards.\u00a0One can, therefore, turn a blind eye\u00a0<\/span>to human rights protection<\/a>\u00a0if it serves to lift the fate of a Europe lashed by the blows that Trump never ceases to deliver left and right.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From free trade agreements to investments in clean technologies, to security in Europe and Asia. The College of Commissioners will fly on an official visit to New Delhi to reinvigorate the strategic partnership with the giant of global politics, in an anti-Trump (and anti-Putin) key<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":419739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649],"tags":[25747,30583,30584,30585],"class_list":["post-419746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorizzato","tag-agreement-liberal-exchange-eu-india-en","tag-inida-en","tag-narendramodi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419746"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419754,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419746\/revisions\/419754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}