2018 has started with a growth uptick in the Euro-zone and the lowest unemployment rates for the decade.
This is a positive for India as EU has been a major business and trading partner to India for long.
What is the significance of 2018?
The Franco-German motor has been instrumental in accelerating the EU forward since the times of the Elysée Treaty of 1963 (friendship treaty).
Currently, there is considerable optimism as both with Ms. Merkel in Germany and Mr. Macron in France, have strong pro-EU views.
They’ve have expressed renewed ambitions for Europe to adapt it to today’s challenges in a rapidly-evolving world like “climate change and terrorism”.
Much has been done over the last few years to consolidate the Euro-zone, protect our borders, fight against terrorism and build European defences.
How has Indo-EU bonhomie been?
While there are multiple global challenges shared across the world, India and Europe share a lot more basic principles and values in common.
Shared Ideals - Both believe in multilateralism, cooperation and a rules-based international order rather than the unilateral use of force and coercion.
Both believe democracy, human rights and the rule of law to be the best means to secure freedom and prosperity for our peoples.
This lays the ground for a natural partnership and thereby the Indo-EU relationship is as old as the EU itself.
Current Partnerships - Today, the EU is India’s largest trading partner and investor, and will remain so even after Brexit.
European companies are actively involved in India in creating jobs, sharing technical know-how, and promoting research and innovation here.
Reciprocally, highly-qualified Indian workers have been contributing to the European economy for decades.
Notably, Indian investment flows towards Europe is also strong and EU remains open to Indian talent and enterprise even during disruptive times.
Together, we are formulating innovative solutions for the 21st century in the fields of smart cities, renewable energy and clean transportation.
Strategic Significance - While there is lesser visibility for this, there is a very important growing EU-India security partnership.
For France and Germany, India has been a trusted security partner for many years, which is steadily building into a greater partnership with EU as a whole.
Regular exchanges of views are already taking place between Indian and European officials on a large number of foreign policy and security issues.
This further build into a concrete cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism, and cyber-security.
