New Determinants Of Relations Between The Eu And India

With the signing of the EU-India Strategic Partnership in 2004 and the launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement in 2007, bilateral relations seemed to have entered a new phase. However, after 12 rounds of negotiations and several technical meetings, talks stalled in 2013, amid divergent interests.The UK has maintained its protectionist stance in several areas, including financial services, access for Indian specialists to the community labor market, and the right of Indian students to stay after graduation in the country where they studied. In the context of Brexit, but also of other geostrategic factors – the EU and India’s positions on China’s large-scale initiatives such as Belt and Road, as well as the US protectionist stance reflected in the slogan ―America first‖ – it was to be expected that both parties would decide to resume negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement, which happened at the bilateral summit of 2017. Moreover, the EU and India adopted at the summit two concrete initiatives: a platform for cooperation on energy and climate change and a partnership for sustainable urbanization. In view of all this, besides India’s special relations with countries such as France, this paper has as its main objective the investigation of the new determinants of the EU-India bilateral relations,which can lead to their real potential.