Report highlights India’s rise as strategic partner for EU

New Delhi, March 9:  India’s relations with Germany and the European Union (EU) have strengthened from being based merely on trade ties to a strategic alignment encompassing economics, technology and shared interest in a stable Indo-Pacific, according to a new report

“Recent high level visits and upgraded frameworks with Germany, France, Italy, Finland, and the EU leadership have consolidated Europe as India’s second strategic theatre after the Indo-Pacific’s core Quad network,” according to an article in India Narrative.

India’s ties with Europe which were earlier dominated by trade, aid, and diaspora linked politics have seen a shift to strategy: technology supply chains, defence co production, clean energy transition, and joint Indo-Pacific projection. In the last five years Brussels has begun treating New Delhi as a systemic stabiliser and key voice of the “Global South”, reflected in the EU College of Commissioners’ unprecedented visit to India in February 2025, the article states.

Simultaneously, leading member states have “bilateralised” their India bets. France has elevated ties to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership”; Germany marks 25 years of Strategic Partnership; Italy has unveiled a detailed 2025 2029 Joint Strategic Action Plan; and Finland has deepened its strategic partnership through high-level ministerial and presidential engagements in early 2026.

This creates an overlapping lattice: EU level frameworks on trade, digital and connectivity, complemented by state level defence, industrial and technology cooperation that directly feed into India’s growth and security objectives, according to the article written by Anushree Dutta.

The article points out that Germany’s relationship with India has long rested on economic complementarity, but the recent pivot is toward a strategic industrial and green transition partnership. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s January 2026 visit to India was deliberately framed as a signal that Berlin sees New Delhi as a primary Indo Pacific partner, not a peripheral emerging market.

For India, German capital and technology are instruments for de-risking its China-exposed supply chains and accelerating its domestic manufacturing and green energy ambitions. For Germany, India offers both market and diversification away from Chinese over dependence, while also providing a politically palatable Indo Pacific presence that aligns with Berlin’s evolving strategy for the region, the article added.

--IANS