The significance of EU-India partnership in the Indo-Pacific

The issues at stake in this crucial region, including security challenges, are of concern to all EU countries. Europe’s answer is a comprehensive and positive agenda of solutions, rather than a logic of military confrontation. This is also the guiding principle of the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, unveiled in September 2021. Europe can offer the countries of the region a sustainable, transparent model for preserving their sovereignty, and an alternative to other models, such as China’s.

Tomorrow’s Forum is France’s contribution to translating this strategy into actions. We are working on concrete projects in three priority areas — security and defence, connectivity and common goods. On each of these issues, we believe that India has a central role to play.

France, itself a nation of the Indo-Pacific, has a long-standing commitment to upholding the law of the sea in the region, particularly through our permanent naval presence and joint exercises, such as our annual “Varuna” drills with India. Other EU countries are increasingly present at the national level. We believe that stronger European engagement will help to better respond to the security challenges of this vast region. That is why we are working on a coordinated EU maritime presence in the Indian Ocean, a key item of tomorrow’s discussions. This would be a significant step, that demonstrates the EU’s role as a provider of stability in the region.

There are immense connectivity and infrastructure needs in the Indo-Pacific. But these needs should not force the countries of the region into unsustainable dependencies. Alternative options are required. The EU’s Global Gateway initiative unveiled in December 2021 hopes to address this by pooling the resources of the EU’s institutions and its 27 member states to raise 300 billion euros to build sustainable links. Tomorrow’s Forum will focus on strengthening connections between Europe and the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the air and digital domains. The EU and India have already concluded a Connectivity Partnership (last May in Porto), which can be a pillar of this wider initiative.

The Indo-Pacific is a crucial region for tackling global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity protection and health resilience. These challenges call for collective action. At the Forum, the EU will present the support it can provide to countries of the region, including in terms of green finance, to achieve their ecological transitions in a just manner. This is significant for India’s efforts to meet the goals set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26. Moreover, in the fields of biodiversity protection and plastic pollution, France and India can act together to spur multilateral action, as exemplified by India’s decision to join the France-initiated international coalition to protect 30 per cent of the land and seas by 2030 (High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People).

Cooperation between France and India on protected areas and national parks can also be expanded at the Indo-Pacific scale. Finally, the ministers will discuss concrete steps to strengthen health sovereignty and promote the “One Health” approach to the pandemic response. France will propose the creation of an Indo-Pacific health campus, to be established in India, to bring together India’s pharmaceutical prowess and Europe’s technological capacity for the benefit of the region.

In a world of growing tensions, the core goal of France’s EU Presidency is to strengthen Europe’s sovereignty and its ability to decide its own fate. This endeavour matches India’s fundamental aspiration for strategic autonomy. That is why France believes that the EU can be India’s natural partner to reshape the post-pandemic world and promote a multipolar order. We can leverage our excellent bilateral ties and the momentum from the May 2021 EU-India Summit to bring about this vision. At tomorrow’s Forum, France and India will work together to place a truly strategic EU-India partnership at the centre of a new deal for the Indo-Pacific.

(The writer is Ambassador of France to India)