Strategic Partnerships With Emerging Powers

This study presents an analysis of trade and investment relations between the EU and India and the possible impact of the free trade agreement (FTA), currently under negotiation. The methodology applied to assess the impact of the FTA is based upon the Sussex Framework and the concepts of deep and shallow integration. The EU-Indian relations are outlined in the context of multilateral, bilateral and regional frameworks.
The study is divided into four sections. The first chapter sets the EU – India relations in a political context, elaborating on the legal basis of advancing stages of collaboration that led to the strategic partnership. The second chapter examines the Common Commercial Policy emphasising on the instruments and criteria applied by the EU in its external trade policy. Indian trade policy is briefly presented to assess the extent to which two partners’ policy positions overlap in regards to the FTA. The third chapter provides an overview of trade and investment patterns and flows between the EU and India over the last decade with the focus on trade in goods and services and on foreign direct investments (FDI). This chapter also elaborates on the specificity of Indian business environment leading to conflicts of interests with the EU. Chapter four provides an impact assessment of the FTA on the basis of the theory of deep and shallow integration. The potential impact is evaluated on the basis of selected issues which have caused a stalemate in the ongoing negotiations, namely tariff dismantling, pro- mobility clauses within the liberalisation of services, labour standards and intellectual property rights.
The findings of this study indicate that while the EU-India FTA remains a viable opportunity for both partners, the potential benefits are not always apparent for the stakeholders. For the EU, the FTA will prove beneficial only if it is followed by deep integration, implying a higher level of convergence of standards and elimination of non-technical barriers to trade in India. This causes resistance on the Indian side as in their view it infringes upon domestic methods of governance and implies costly reforms which India could not handle currently due to its high fiscal deficit and currency volatility. The EU is consistent in exercising its external trade policy in a sense that it has maintained its demands on the sustainable development chapter and liberalisation on FDI. However, the EU external trade policy is not fully effective since the EU has not been able to obtain substantial concessions from India on the most “comprehensive” elements disputed. The EU has low visibility in India and the FTA is perceived negatively by many stakeholders who feel excluded from the negotiation process — these factors further undermine the EU’s legitimacy and effectiveness.

The recent visit of the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, as the chief guest at India’s celebration of its Republic Day in January 2020 has given a new impetus to India-Brazil relations. While a ‘strategic partnership’ had been formalised in 2006 (during the visit of the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Brazil), in the course of this visit, an Action Plan was formalized to further strengthen that partnership.
This paper defines what ‘strategic partnership’ means for India, tracing its usage in Indian foreign policy. While assessing briefly the importance of the partnership for Brazil’s foreign policy goals, an attempt is made to discuss whether the India-Brazil strategic engagement is an effort at political image building or whether it is more a move towards a concrete economic relationship? The paper analyses and evaluates the significance of Brazil as a ‘strategic partner’ for India.

The current European Union (EU) energy policy is premised on three policy pillars; internal energy market, security of supply and sustainable energy production and use.  Energy security  is defined as ‘the ability to ensure that future essential energy needs can be met, both by means of adequate domestic resources worked under economically acceptable conditions or maintained as strategic reserves, and by calling upon accessible and stable external sources supplemented where appropriate by strategic stocks’.  EU has initiated a number of policies, legislative and institutional frameworks aimed at realising its energy objectives. Critical to this discussion is the granting of shared competence in energy matters to EU under Lisbon Treaty. Shared competence exists in areas where EU and member states are both able to act. Thus member states are free to act in the same area as long as they do not enact legislation that is in conflict with European law or principles.

This article will intrinsically analyse how EU’s position has been elevated in acting upon energy issues to improve its security of supply using external energy policy. The discussion will traverse through EU’s energy statistics, challenges to energy security, pre and post Lisbon Treaty policy issues aimed at security energy supply. The discussion will further discuss how EU has used its internal energy market structures to extend its energy policy beyond borders. Finally, the final part will look at the bottlenecks to full realisation of EU’s external energy policy and how to improve it. Finally, the conclusion will give an overview of how EU can better serve Europe’s energy security.

The visit of Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan to the People’s Republic of China on March 24, following his moderate criticism of Russia’s arms deliveries to Azerbaijan, emanated in the signature of a bilateral comprehensive declaration signed between Armenia and China. One of the document’s significant pillars is Armenia’s enrollment in China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt.” Another is an accord to cooperate in the defense and military sphere, emphasizing mutual “military support.” The declaration combined over ten special agreements, involving various ministries of both states, and a preferential loan for adapting and modernizing custom services. China’s agreements with Armenia, coupled with its interest vis-à-vis Azerbaijan and Georgia, heralds China’s economic and political penetration in the South Caucasus.

Over the past ten years, the European Union has started to negotiate and sign Framework Participation Agreement (FPA) with third states, in order to have them participate in the various CSDP missions. The EU has recently signed an FPA with South Korea and has approached Japan to negotiate one, going beyond its usual area of cooperation and engaging partners with which it has very little experience. Yet, the rationale underlying this trend has to be figured out. It appears that what prevails is rather the symbolic value of recognising and being recognised as a relevant international security actor, both for the EU and its Asian partners. It does matter that the EU set a foot on the security map in East Asia, while it is equally important for Japan and South Korea to appear as key security players through partnerships.

The grouping consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) was initially meant to be nothing more than clever investment jargon referring to the largest and most attractive emerging economies. However, these countries identified with the BRIC concept, and started to meet annually as a group in 2008. At their fourth summit in 2011, they added South Africa to become the BRICS. By then the BRICS had fully morphed from investment jargon to a name for a new economic and political grouping that had the potential to challenge the unipolar hegemony of the United States and its Western allies.

This work analyses the extent to which the concept of coexistence explains the individual foreign policies of the BRICS countries defining coexistence as a strategy that promotes the establishment of a rule-based system for co-managing the global order. It recognizes that different states may legitimately pursue their own political and economic interests, but they have to do so within the bounds of a rule-based international system that ensures the peaceful coexistence of states.

The BRICS and Coexistence addresses the political dimension of the emergence and influence of the BRICS in the international system and will be of interest to students and scholars of Politics, Development and International Relations.