The European Union (EU) is set to strengthen its defense and security ties with India in response to escalating tensions within the Indo-Pacific region, according to a senior EU official.
"The EU has a clear interest in an Indo-Pacific region where sovereign, independent countries have the strength to protect their national interests, free of coercion," explained Richard Tibbels, the EU's special envoy for the Indo-Pacific.
“As the world is facing major geopolitical inflection points, we see India as a key partner in implementing EU’s Strategy for the Indo-Pacific. This is reflected also in the 2022 EU’s Strategic Compass, where India is specifically mentioned," Tibbels added.
He pointed to recent successes in cooperative efforts: "We have already stepped up our security cooperation in recent years with a first joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Guinea and India has also participated in an exercise with EU Operation Atalanta in the North-West Indian Ocean."
Tibbels sees an increase in these efforts on the horizon: “You are likely to see an increase in the EU’s security and defense cooperation with India and greater engagement across the Indo-Pacific." He specifically highlighted space security as a crucial area for future focus.
The importance of the growing partnership rests on the current challenges in the region: “The Indo-Pacific is seeing intense geopolitical competition and increasing tensions in the South and East China Seas, the Taiwan Strait, not to mention the actions of the DPRK (North Korea) undermining the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and the border disputes between India and China. The stability of the region is also threatened by attempts at economic coercion, disinformation and malevolent actions in the cyber field," Tibbels said.
He underscored the EU's stance on how to address this: “What is important for the EU is that there must be a level-playing field for economic relations and aggressive military rhetoric and exercises must be avoided and the UN Charter and international law, notably UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), must be respected,"
The EU and India's increasingly intertwined defense and security strategies are a direct response to the changing dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region, suggesting a significant focus on cooperation moving forward.
