India - Europe: Challenges in European Geopolitics
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
Rebalancing the Indo-Pacific that has been destabilised by China’s assertiveness in the region, is an important strategic priority for India today. Delhi, however, recognises that this expansive challenge can’t be met by any one power, including the US. A larger European role in securing Asia therefore becomes critical.
Deeply rooted contradictions in Europe
That may not be easy. In Europe writes C Raja Mohan (contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express) there are “four deeply rooted contradictions. First, Europe remains geopolitically unstable. None of the three European settlements of the 20th century — in 1919 after the First World War, in 1945 after the Second World War, and in 1991 after the Cold War — has endured.
“Second is the difficulty of integrating Russia into a European order on mutually acceptable terms…..Third, the growing tension between the US and Europe. Since the Second World War, Europe has relied on the US for its security, but it never stopped resenting the American dominance over its geopolitics. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has repeatedly objected to the US and Russia deciding the future of Ukraine over European heads…..
Europe remains a weak security actor: “Finally, the idea that Europe must look after its own security dates back to Charles de Gaulle. But it remains an unrealised ambition. While the EU has become a powerful economic entity (with its $17 trillion GDP), it remains a weak security actor.
"The ambition to construct a strong geopolitical personality for the EU is hobbled by divisions over the role of Russia and the US in the region as well as the historically rooted mutual suspicions among European states. This is compounded by the reluctance to spend more on defence and the inability to develop collective defence arrangements outside of NATO led by the US…..”
Challenge for India
Noting that “these European contradictions are not going to disappear any time soon,” Mohan argues “they demand that Delhi discard its tendency to view the region through the ‘East versus West’ binary…..”
In today’s world, relations between the US, UK, Europe, Russia, China and Japan are in a state of flux and evolution. “Delhi’s focus must be on leveraging them for national benefit where it can and insulating India from the negative effects where it must. Greater engagement with Europe and dealing with its multiple contradictions must necessarily be important elements of India’s international relations today.”
