India, goes the quip, ‘is the next big thing and always will be’. Look closely, though, and it’s clear this time really is different.
For anyone who knows India, that notion is absurd on its face, considering that we’re talking about the world’s most populous country and its soon-to-be fourth-largest economy.
Even more absurd is that Europe isn’t champing at the bit to secure a free trade agreement with India. Talks between the two sides began in 2007 and may or may not be concluded by the end of this year. To grease the skids, Ursula von der Leyen took her commissioners on a road trip to New Delhi in February.
The visit got little notice in Europe. That appeared to be by design; von der Leyen, who normally never misses an opportunity to bask in the media spotlight, didn’t include journalists in her entourage.
Brussels would prefer not to draw too much attention to the trade talks in the hopes of avoiding public debate. Sooner or later, that strategy is bound to backfire (remember TTIP?).
An open, honest discussion about the advantages of embracing Indian trade is essential. Those advantages are many. For one, India has much of what Europe is lacking: a young, mobile, well-educated workforce, along with cheap labour and manufacturing. It’s also eager to tango.
“The EU is clearly a major pole in the global order – and increasingly an autonomous one,” India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, told us this week before meeting von der Leyen. “That is precisely why I’m here: to deepen our relationship in this multipolar world.”
The biggest advantage with India, of course, is that it is not China. Europe all but bet the farm on China decades ago. It was a good arrangement for a time but came at the heavy price of losing intellectual property and having to get into bed with one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
