The European Union and India established their Strategic Partnership in 2004, but tangible achievements have been limited and often based on overly optimistic expectations. The stark disconnect between ambitions and outcomes is underscored by the fact that nearly 21 years after the launch of the Strategic Partnership, the EU’s Political and Security Committee (PSC), which includes 27 Brussels-based EU ambassadors, paid its first-ever visit to India from 10th to 14th September 2025.

During its visit, the Committee held hold strategic discussions with high-level Indian government officials, private sector defence representatives, civil society organisations and leading think thanks to provide a comprehensive assessment of policy priorities, while exploring future avenues for enhancing cooperation on key foreign policy matters, security and defence, particularly in the lead up to the upcoming EU-India Summit, according to a statement by EEAS, the EU’s foreign service.

Slow and Fragmented

Equally telling is that the first EU-India Strategic Dialogue that took place just last June in Brussels between EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar,  highlighting how slow and fragmented progress has been in translating lofty declarations into sustained engagement.

In  2005, the EU-India Joint Action Plan (JAP) for the Strategic Partnership was adopted and three years later, in 2008, the Plan was updated. The 2008 JAP contained a review of the accomplishments related to the goals of the 2005 JAP.

The recent adoption by the European Commission of a new EU-India strategy to boost defence and   security ties with India comes in the backdrop of escalating tensions with the US on tariffs and other issues.

“We have adopted a new EU-India strategy. India is a crucial partner for the European Union. The EU and India together account for 25% of the global population and GDP. Closer European Union-India relations are vital for strengthening economic security and diversifying supply chains, “Kallas, told a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday 18 September, presenting the 19-page policy document on the EU-India Strategic Agenda.

But she also listed a number of issues saying they  could jeopardise the EU-India strategic partnership. Moreover, she  appeared to sermonise how India should conduct its foreign and trade policies.

“India's participation in Russia's military exercises and its purchase of Russian oil stand in the way of closer ties,” she warned, referring to India’s participation in  the annual Russian military exercise Zapad last weekend.

“To be very clear, we are having clear areas of disagreement with India regarding these issues, “ declared Kallas, a former Prime Minister of Estonia, adding that all these were obstacles to EU-India cooperation when it came to deepening the ties.

However, she added a caveat that if the EU doesn’t stand ready to engage with India, other powers like China and Russia will fill that gap, indicating there were differences in the EU's top echelons over its India policy. 

Asked by a reporter that if India did not accept the conditions would the EU cancel the plan, she replied rhetorically, “negotiations are negotiations, and until we agree about everything, then nothing is agreed.  We have to take everything into account, so nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.

Hypocritical Attitude

Former Indian  Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, a former ambassador to France, hit back at Kallas, saying that while differences exist between the EU and India, the EU itself is not without contradictions.

"Yes, there are differences. EU countries and the US are also arming Pakistan, which is a Major non-NATO ally of the US. Some European countries are also doing military exercises with Pakistan," Sibal pointed out. He further accused the EU of violating international norms when it suited their interests, particularly in relation to Russia and developments in West Asia.

One of the great failings in the EU-India partnership has been Europe's hypocritical attitude on values such as human rights it says it holds dear. The EU goes on preaching to the world about human rights, humanitarian law, ethical values etc but in practice Brussels provides financial support to authoritarian regimes in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including China, to safeguard its own strategic and commercial interests.

The European Union badly needs a change in its colonial mindset, but seems to be slow in happening. “Europe has to grow out of the mindset that its problems are the world’s problems but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems, “ Jaishankar told an international conference in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, in 2022 .

“If I were to take Europe collectively which has been singularly silent on many things which were happening, for example in Asia, you could ask why anybody in Asia trusts Europe on anything at all,” he declared, strong words which did not go down well in Brussels and European capitals.

Double Standards

Further, EU’s India-bashing  for purchasing Russian oil is nothing but double standards. Between February 24, 2022 (the start of the Ukraine war) and August 21, 2025, Russia earned over €933 billion (slightly above US$1 trillion) from fossil fuel exports to European and Asian buyers. In three years, the EU imported €213 billion (22% of the total), China €268 billion (28.3%), India €148.7 billion (15.9%), and Turkey €111 billion (11.9%).

At the same time, EU member states have been buying refined Russian oil from India and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to directly purchasing Russian coal, LNG, natural gas, and petroleum.

The EU is little known as a political entity among the wider public in India and sorely needs to upgrade its somewhat outdated communication strategy if it wants to have its policies and values better understood among the thinking classes. 

Analysts note that when India discusses defence and does business with major EU Member  States such as France, Germany and the UK , the EU is seen as a mere economic bloc with little global influence.

Speaking at the same press conference on Wednesday , EU Trade Commissioner Maros  Šefčovič repeated EU and India’s shared ambition to  conclude  Free Trade Agreement negotiations by the end of  2025. But he also expressed disappointment that talks were not progressing as he  had expected.

Sefcovic said that he travelled to New Delhi last week for talks with the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in an effort to advance the FTA negotiations that have now dragged on for 13 rounds.

“I must admit, however, that I had hoped for more progress.” he said, raising questions if the deal can be concluded by December at all.

“Nobody hides that the negotiations are difficult, “ he said, adding that the talks in New Delhi were unable to resolve the differences between the two sides over the important chapters of the agricultural and car industry.

“What we discussed with (minister) Piyush is very difficult and if we discuss agriculture it is even more challenging,” he noted.

The India-EU FTA trade negotiations cover 23 policy areas or chapters, including trade in goods and  services, technical barriers to trade, government procurement, , among other issues.

The visit of EU Commissioners led by President Ursula von der Leyen to India in February 2025 laid the foundation for a new chapter in EU-India relations topped by the potential signing of the FTA by end of this year.

“During this landmark visit – the first of its kind to the Indo Pacific – both sides committed to raising the Strategic Partnership to a higher level to boost shared prosperity, strengthen security, and tackle major global challenges together,” noted the EU document.

However,  the EU-India relationship continues to be dominated by trade and economic issues. Despite a lot of lofty talk of “strategic partnership”, New Delhi  continues to look at the EU largely as a trading bloc while Brussels regards India as a huge market for its products and services that cannot be ignored. 

Brussels and New Delhi are also trying to boost their cooperation on counter-terrorism. The two sides held their 15th Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism on 9 September in Brussels.

Balancing Act

The European media appears to be divided over the prospects of an EU-India FTA.  “Defence and security policies could become the backbone of a new partnership between India and the EU,“ commented Euronews TV  in a report on the new EU-India strategy.

“The war in Ukraine, the military build-up in the Indo-Pacific region and the recent flare-up of violence with Pakistan have brought security and defence at the centre stage in the relationship between New Delhi and the 27 Member States that are eager to cooperate in the defence industrial sector, mostly with EU technology,” it noted.

Brussels-based publication EUobserver voiced concern that the  “credible and enforceable“ Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapter was missing from the FTA.

“For trade unions and workers across Europe, TSD chapters are not a technical detail — they are a defining test of whether the EU is committed to the values it claims to uphold. In a world where those values are increasingly under pressure, this test could not be more vital,” it said.

“A trade deal that lacks strong commitments to labour rights and sustainability would not only undermine workers in both Europe and India — it would also damage Europe’s credibility at a time of growing global trade instability. The EU must not abandon its principles in pursuit of expediency — not now, and certainly not in the current geopolitical climate,” it warned.

The EU needs to do a delicate balancing act between  its avowed principles and political expediency and  geopolitical crosswinds may be crucial for the FTA to be finalised by the end of this year.

(The author is an Indian journalist who is a long time resident in Brussels and has been covering European and EU affairs for the past 40 years. Views expressed are personal . He can be reached at nawab_khan@hotmail.com X: @NawabKhan10)