Something unsatisfactory hangs over the summit that the leaders of the European Union and India will hold in Marseilles on September 29. These are two of the world’s most important power centres, and they share much in common, such a commitment to democracy and respect for a rules-based international order. But their partnership, though friendly, lacks real substance. It is marked by misunderstandings and friction as much as enthusiastic co-operation.
When the EU published its first ever Security Strategy in 2003, it identified the US as its closest ally and and five other powers with which it sought ”strategic partnerships” – Canada, China, India, Japan and Russia. Among those five, ties with Russia are under the greatest strain. But it is with India that the EU has its most under-developed relationship.
True, bilateral trade has more than doubled since 2003 and totalled more than €55bn last year. But the EU-Indian negotiations on a free trade agreement, which started in June 2007, are making slow progress and will not be concluded by the end of this year, as once hoped.
The EU frequently complains about India’s restrictive trade barriers and regulatory regime and say access to important sectors such as aviation, banking, insurance and telecommunications is difficult for foreign investors. India, for its part, rejects both the EU’s demands for more cuts in industrial tariffs and the EU’s stance on global climate change, saying it is a developing country that is under no obligation to slow its modernisation.
Wider strategic co-operation between India and the EU is affected by India’s view of itself as an emerging power that aspires to a bigger global role. The EU says it welcomes this, but when India lays claim to a seat on the UN Security Council – a perfectly reasonable request - it rapidly falls victim to the subtle national rivalries at play on this issue in the EU between France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
That issue aside, however, there ought be more intense co-operation between the EU and India on issues ranging from counter-terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to food security and failed or failing states. On Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and China, there is much the EU and India can and should do together. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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