The European Commission on Wednesday established plans to further strengthen collaboration with India in areas like defense, technology, and trade despite the tensions surrounding the fact that New Delhi is drawing closer to Moscow.
The European Union and India are wrapping up free trade agreement negotiations between the two sides, which the two partners hope to close before the year ends.
The re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump has seen the negotiations, which have been re-launched in 2022, pick up steam. Both sides have been striving to promote new alliances in the quickest time possible in the face of Trump tariffs.
In the case of Brussels, it refers to premeditated trade agreements with Mexico, the South American bloc Mercosur, India, and Indonesia. India is optimistic about the European Union and other countries such as China and Russia.
India has become a bigger buyer of Russian oil since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shook hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in China over the past month, and the Indian troops were part of a Russian-led military exercise.
The U.S. government urged G7 and EU members to levy tariffs on China and India due to their buying Russian oil, on Friday.
According to the Commission and its document issuance on Wednesday, the EU would also collaborate more closely with India in reducing the military of Russia and by-passing its sanctions.
Regardless of the strains, the EU Commission considers India to be a co-contender in the rules-based multilateral order, and dreams of enjoying the projected expansion to become the third-largest economy in the world in 2030.
They might as well enter into a defense and security relationship, as the EU has with Japan and South Korea, and jointly work on the projects in the third nations, especially in Africa and South Asia.
