| Summary/Abstract |
Does India regard the EU as a significant actor or prefers the bilateral approach towards individual member countries? Is it a dialectical relationship? How do India’s relations with the USA impact India-EU relations? Jean Luc Racine makes a cynical assessment about the EU-India-US triangular relationship. He acknowledges: “Some will deride Europe as a ‘bawdy old lady’, known for over 400 years, but with ‘no excitement, no passion’ left. The romance is with America, even if it is ‘tough love’, because the US was more open to migrants and is more prone to change the world.”
What adds complexity to this task is that conceptually India, post 1947, is regarded as a ‘modern state’, with the attributes of sovereignty, territoriality, and raison d’état (justification of sovereignty).In contrast, the EU is considered to be a ‘post modern intra state entity’ which does not emphasise sovereignty, the separation of domestic and foreign affairs, and which, after Schengen, increasingly regards borders as irrelevant. It is generally considered that the EU as a ‘post modern actor’ does not base its foreign policy on the balance of power and zero sum logic. There is no doubt that its inability to develop and implement a coherent and strong Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has sent wrong signals to its strategic partners, including India.
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