How India Engages With Europe

India's relationship with Europe — comprising the EU as an institutional block, bilateral relationships with France, Germany, UK, and others — is India's most underdeveloped major power relationship relative to its strategic and economic potential. 

Europe is India's largest trading partner as a bloc (EU-India trade approximately €120 billion); France is India's most substantive European strategic partner (Rafale jets, Scorpène submarines, civilian nuclear cooperation, space cooperation through ISRO-CNES); Germany is India's most important industrial partner (Volkswagen, Siemens, BMW manufacturing in India; German engineering in India's green hydrogen ambitions); and the UK remains linked through the Commonwealth, the Indian diaspora, and the ongoing India-UK Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Representational Image: How India Engages With Europe

India's engagement with Europe has been characterised as "reactive rather than proactive" by analysts — India responds to European initiatives rather than leading the relationship. The EU-India Strategic Partnership (2004) and the EU-India Connectivity Partnership (2021) have not produced the depth of engagement that their formal frameworks suggest. 

The India-EU FTA negotiations (launched 2007, suspended 2013, relaunched 2022) have been stalled by India's agricultural protections, EU's data protection requirements, and both sides' unwillingness to make market access concessions.

News sources argued that India "must engage Europe with fresh urgency" — with Europe's strategic significance increasing as the US-China competition intensifies and Europe seeks to reduce its own dependencies.

What You Need to Know

• India-France strategic partnership: France is India's closest European security partner; Rafale fighter jets (36 delivered, 26 more for Navy ordered 2021); Scorpène submarines (six delivered, three more under consideration); ISRO-CNES space cooperation; civilian nuclear cooperation; PM Modi visited France in July 2023 (Bastille Day parade with PM as chief guest); bilateral defence and industrial roadmap signed.
• India-UK FTA negotiations: launched January 2022; 14 rounds of negotiations as of 2025; sticking points: India's pharmaceutical and agricultural market access; UK's demand for India to lower spirits import duties; India's demand for enhanced work visas (professional mobility); multiple "imminent conclusion" announcements (January 2023, October 2023, July 2024) have not produced conclusion; post-Brexit UK sees India FTA as a priority post-Commonwealth trade diversification.
• India-Germany strategic partnership: Germany is India's largest European trade partner (~€30 billion bilateral); German FDI in India manufacturing (automotive, engineering, chemicals); India-Germany Joint Commission (longest continuously meeting bilateral body); green hydrogen MOU (2021, Germany seeking clean energy supply; India seeking investment); chancellor Scholz visited India 2023.
• EU-India Connectivity Partnership (2021): launched September 2021; covers: digital connectivity (undersea cables, telecom infrastructure), energy connectivity (LNG, renewable energy); transport (ports, logistics); strategic value: European alternative to China's BRI for infrastructure finance in developing countries; practical implementation slower than stated ambition.
• India-European relationship Ukraine dimension: Europe's Ukraine war engagement created complications for India-Europe relations; EU expected India to support its Ukraine position; India abstained on UN votes; India declined to sanction Russia; Europe accepted India's position with varying degrees of frustration; France (strategic partner with Russia relationship of its own) was most understanding; Baltic states were most critical.

How It Works in Practice

1. France as India's deepest European security partner: The Rafale deal — 36 aircraft delivered 2020–22 and an additional 26 for the Indian Navy ordered 2021 — is India's most significant European defence procurement; combined with Scorpène submarines, ISRO-CNES cooperation (French satellite launch history with India), and civilian nuclear cooperation (French Areva involvement in Jaitapur nuclear plant, stalled), France has deeper military-strategic depth with India than any other European power.

2. The UK FTA negotiation's political economy: The India-UK FTA's protracted negotiation reflects genuine structural differences: India's agricultural and pharmaceutical protections are politically sacrosanct domestically; UK's spirits industry lobbies for whisky export access that India politically can't concede; both sides' bureaucracies are capable of obstruction when domestic constituencies resist liberalisation. The FTA's conclusion would be symbolically important — India's most significant Western FTA outside CEPA with UAE — but its economic impact is second-order given the existing trade level.

3. Europe's India strategic awakening post-Ukraine: Europe's recognition that energy dependence on Russia, technology dependence on China, and over-reliance on US security are strategic vulnerabilities has increased European interest in India as a strategic partner. India's large domestic market, manufacturing potential (India+1 strategy), and democratic identity make it an attractive European partner for supply chain diversification and strategic hedge. The EU-India Technology Council and EU-India Trade and Technology Council (announced 2023) represent the institutional framework for this potential deepening.

4. The Commonwealth dimension with the UK: The 54-nation Commonwealth provides a post-colonial institutional link between India and the UK; India is the Commonwealth's largest economy by far (approximately 30% of Commonwealth GDP); Modi attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM); India has used Commonwealth to advance diplomatic positions; the Commonwealth is not a major foreign policy vehicle for India but provides network utility.

5. India's European diaspora and soft power: Approximately 2 million Indians in the UK (the largest Indian diaspora community in Europe); 400,000 in Germany; 100,000+ each in Netherlands, France, Italy; the Indian diaspora's economic success (UK's first Indian-origin PM Rishi Sunak, 2022–2024) and cultural visibility create soft power leverage for India's European diplomatic objectives.

What People Often Misunderstand

• Europe is India's largest trading partner as a bloc but not India's strategic priority: India's strategic attention goes to the US, China, Pakistan, Russia, and the Gulf — in roughly that order; Europe is strategically important but receives proportionally less diplomatic attention than its economic significance justifies; analysts consistently note this mismatch.
• France and Germany have substantially different India approaches: France emphasises the security and defence partnership; Germany emphasises trade, climate, and industrial partnership; the UK emphasises trade, diaspora, and post-Brexit partnership; Italy, Spain, and others have narrower bilateral relationships; "Europe" is not a unified strategic actor toward India.
• India-EU FTA's conclusion is not guaranteed by relaunching negotiations: The 2022 relaunch was the third attempt; the structural obstacles (India's agricultural protection, EU's regulatory standards convergence demands) have not changed since the 2013 suspension; political will matters but bureaucratic and lobby resistance has historically defeated political will in India-EU trade negotiations.
• India's Ukraine vote abstentions created some European trust deficit: While most European leaders accepted India's position intellectually, India's abstentions created emotional distance — particularly given the scale of European assistance to Ukraine; the trust deficit is real even if it hasn't produced policy changes.
• News India Times' "engage Europe with fresh urgency" is a genuine policy recommendation: The call for India to more actively cultivate Europe as a strategic partner — not just a trade partner — reflects a genuine gap in India's multi-alignment strategy; Europe's increasing strategic autonomy aspiration (French "European sovereignty" doctrine, EU Strategic Compass) creates an opening for India to engage Europe as a pole in its own right rather than as the US-adjacent Western bloc.

What Changes Over Time

India-UK FTA conclusion — expected but repeatedly delayed — will be the most consequential near-term Europe development; when concluded, it will reset the India-UK relationship as post-Brexit UK's most significant non-US partnership. India-EU Trade and Technology Council's operationalisation (technology and trade cooperation with the EU bloc) could become the most important strategic framework for India's European relationships if it translates to semiconductor, AI, and green energy cooperation at scale.

Sources and Further Reading

• CSIS — India's future strategic choices: https://www.csis.org/analysis/indias-future-strategic-choices-complications-mass
• Khan Global Studies — India's foreign policy: https://www.khanglobalstudies.com/blog/indias-foreign-policy-2025/
• Tribune India — Strategic autonomy: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/bricsleadership/operation-sindoor-beyond-how-india-asserted-strategic-autonomy-amid-tariffs-security-challenges
• MEA — Annual Report 2024: https://www.mea.gov.in/annual-report.htm

(This series is part of a long-term editorial project to explain the structures, institutions, policies, and strategic frameworks that shape governance and statecraft in India for a global audience. Designed as a 25-article briefing cluster on Indian Foreign Policy Strategy & Doctrine, this vertical examines how India understands, formulates, and executes its engagement with the world — from the institutional architecture of foreign policy and the evolution from non-alignment to multi-alignment, to strategic autonomy, neighbourhood diplomacy, great-power relations, security doctrines, economic statecraft, multilateral engagement, and India's emerging role in a rapidly changing international order. Written in an accessible format for diplomats, investors, researchers, academics, journalists, policymakers, students, civil society organisations, and international observers, the series seeks to explain not only what India does abroad, but why it does so. Particular attention is given to the historical evolution of India's strategic thinking, the practical realities of decision-making, the tensions between ideals and interests, and the opportunities and constraints facing a rising power in the twenty-first century. This is Vertical 9 of a larger 20-vertical knowledge architecture being developed by IndianRepublic.in under the editorial direction of Saket Suman. All articles are protected under applicable copyright laws. All Rights Reserved.)