India-EU partnership more important amid major global shifts: S Jaishankar

India’s relationship with the European Union (EU) is more important than before at a time when the world is witnessing major shifts in areas ranging from politics to energy and technology, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Amid talk about the “world order unravelling”, there is a need to refresh the economic and political logic of an earlier era, he said against the backdrop of sharp changes in the trade and foreign policies of the US following the return of President Donald Trump.

Jaishankar, who was addressing an annual seminar organised by the India International Centre (IIC) and the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, emphasised that deeper India-EU collaboration will benefit both sides when the world is on the “cusp of a big change”. He added, “Politics is only the tip of the iceberg. Whether it is energy or connectivity, mobility or technology, major shifts await us.”

India and the EU have common interests and shared values and the meeting points of the two sides will increase as they take stock of the changes underway. “Moreover, in a world that promises to be so volatile and so uncertain, a stronger India-EU relationship can be an important stabilising factor,” he said.

Jaishankar described the “greater strategic awakening” in Europe as a driver of deeper engagement, and said there was already closer security, defence and technology cooperation between India and the EU. “The bottom line is that our India-EU relationship is more important than ever before,” he said.

The remarks came ahead of a planned visit to India by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – the first foreign trip in her second term – and members of the new commission. While announcing the visit last month, Von der Leyen spoke about upgrading the strategic partnership with India as part of Europe’s response to rising global competition.

Jaishankar noted that cooperation between India and the EU on maritime security and defence has increased, both collectively and with members of the 27-nation bloc, while the EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and Global Gateway are “steps in the right direction”.

He called for the speedy conclusion of an India-EU trade deal, negotiations for which were relaunched in June 2022 after a hiatus of almost a decade. Since then, the two sides have nine rounds of negotiations.

“On the FTA, I think it is really time we get along with it. We established the Trade and Technology Council to deal with controlled technologies and digital transactions,” Jaishankar said, adding that the EU is India’s largest economic partner that is valued for resources, technology and best practices.

Jaishankar questioned the current model of globalised trade, saying that “free trade was increasingly less and less fair trade”, and that the trading system was gamed for the benefit of a few, leading to a political backlash over stagnating quality of life, employment challenges and frustration over the inability to compete against state support and subsidies.

“It was easy to give a cultural twist to these insecurities as well. So, whether we go back to Brexit, look at political happenings in many other nations...or now considering the return of the Trump administration, let us appreciate that these consequences actually have causes,” he said.

Without naming China, he brought up the issue of “serious over-concentration of manufacturing in a limited geography” and said this has ramifications such as supply chain vulnerabilities which can be aggravated by conflicts, and a leveraging of market shares and dependence. “It is no accident that the discourse...has focused intensively on de-risking the international economy,” he said.