India, the world’s 4th largest economy, and EU, the world’s 2nd largest trading bloc, last week inked a historic & landmark deal with the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) after 18 long years of painstaking negotiations with Trumponomics-led global trade wars having effectively catalyzed the conclusion of the same.
Being described by both sides as the "mother of all deals," it directly connects two of the world's top economies, thereby, creating a unified market of nearly 2 billion people accounting for almost a quarter of the world economy and aims to create a $27 trillion market while also reducing strategic dependencies.
Besides the Trade Deal, India and the European Union have also adopted the "Towards 2030: India-EU Joint Comprehensive Strategic Agenda (JCSA)" and have signed a landmark Security and Defence Partnership (SDP), which is the central plank of the JCSA, on the sidelines of the 16th India-EU Summit in New Delhi held on January 27, 2026.
The year 2026 is being touted as the make-or-break year for the European Union, which faces a 3-front existential challenge from Russia on the defense & security front, from China on the economic front and from traditional ally America on the geopolitical front. Further, it needs to substantially increase collaboration, cooperation & further integration internally to be able to effectively counter the almost existential challenges it faces and to be taken really seriously as a leading geopolitical power by effectively moving from soft power, its traditional forte, to hard power in the era of anarchy and no-holds-barred style power competition underway among the leading global powers.
At this another critical juncture and pivotal moment in world history geopolitically with tectonic shifts underway, the EU-India convergence comes as a highly required anchor to provide stability to the traditional notion of world order which is currently being shaken and rocked to its very core by the tsunamis being created by the ascendancy onto the world stage of the extremist, disruptive and anarchical forces currently at play with the ripple effect being felt acutely across the world at large.
It will provide both India and the EU the ability to partially & effectively offset the impact of Trump's tariff wars while also reducing overall strategic dependencies on America especially at a time when it is turning inward with focus on regional & hemispheric dominance, almost like a regional power, away from its traditional role of being a global hegemon in the post WWII world order.
Also, America's latest National Defense Strategy (NDS) released just last week formally confirms America's strategic Focus shift away from the Indo-Pacific region and away from China as it's top strategic competitor. However, the same is likely to further embolden China's power ambitions & regional aspirations in the Indo-Pacific region going forward. Against this backdrop, the India-EU security & defence partnership (SDP) and the broader India-EU convergence emerges as it's perfect anathema...
