

Europe is aiming to sign a long-awaited free-trade deal with India
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NARENDRA MODI’S guests of honour at Indian Republic Day on January 26th will not just be there to witness the pomp and parades. India’s prime minister has invited the European Union’s two top officials, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and António Costa, president of the European Council, which represents the EU’s member states.
At an EU-India summit the following day, the two sides aim to reach agreement on a range of accords, among them a free-trade pact. Donald Trump deserves some of the credit. Without the American president’s nationalist adventurism, his predilection for tariffs and his habit of alienating allies, the two big democracies might not have found the courage to strike a deal.
Europe and India face a similar sort of problem. “They are trying to preserve their strategic autonomy as secondary players in their respective spheres, India v China in the Indo-Pacific and Europe v America in the Atlantic," says Chietigj Bajpaee of Chatham House, a British think-tank. India is increasingly looking west in its trade relationships—it signed a trade deal with Britain in July—while shunning trade pacts with Asian competitors.
The EU, for its part, faces in whatever direction opportunities present themselves. On January 17th it signed an agreement with Latin America’s Mercosur trade zone, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The European Parliament threw a spanner in the works on January 21st by sending the pact to the courts for judicial review, but the commission says it can apply in the interim.
In the short term, an EU-India deal will change little. The economic relationship starts from a low base. India is only the EU’s ninth-biggest
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