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14 May 2010
EU Observer publishes GPPi op-ed "Resetting Europe’s India strategy"
GPPi Research Associate Joel Sandhu and Fellow Oliver Stuenkel published an op-ed entitled, "Resetting Europe’s India strategy". The article urges the EU leaders urgently address the union’s underperforming relationship with India. The piece also offers recommendations for a deeper and more effective EU-India partnership. The op-ed was published by the EU Observer on 12 May 2010.
Sandhu and Stuenkel argue that the EU’s India policy over the last decade has been less than inspiring. Both parties view each other through an economic prism and for the EU this one-dimensional economic prism prevents it from seeing India in a broader strategic framework. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India’s recent economic rise should be seen as an opportunity for the world’s largest democracy to play a more active role in the emerging multipolar world. The EU can ill-afford to miss this opportunity to deepen its strategic partnership with India on important trans-national challenges namely climate change but also other broader issues of mutual concern.
To move beyond the economic realm and to establish a long-term and meaningful partnership of mutual interests and shared responsibility, the EU needs to put forward a coherent India agenda on which the union could produce broad consensus, including concrete steps on deepening co-operation on climate change and other global issues of mutual concern. India will have to do more to live up to its self-stated multilateral credentials and embrace its role as a rising power and joint stakeholder in global politics.
The piece concludes by supporting the call by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, for EU leaders to quickly adjust their mental map to take into account rising powers including India. This can only work if the new EU president and foreign policy chief work hand-in-hand with the heads of the key EU government.
The article was written in the context of GPPi’s "Rising Powers and Global Governance" program.
To read the full article please click here.
For more information please contact Joel Sandhu or Oliver Stuenkel