The European Union is vying for a larger role in Indo-Pacific security with the US on the back foot in the Eastern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, India is looking for new allies. Its rising economy and increasingly global ambitions have pushed it into new forums and partnerships, including ever closer defense ties with the European bloc.
In January this year, India and the EU signed a Security and Defense Partnership, followed by their first formal Security and Defense Dialogue in March. More meetings followed throughout the year, including the fifth Maritime Security Dialogue in Brussels last month. However, while both sides want to boost cooperation on maritime security, working together in the Indo-Pacific remains a challenge — India and European countries simply have different defense priorities.
"Europe can be a credible defense partner of India, especially in the maritime theater in general and Indo-Pacific in particular," Mohan Kumar, a former Indian ambassador to France, told DW. But Europe's capacity to expand its role is constrained by other security crises. "European distractions such as the conflict in Ukraine, which is of existential importance for it, do detract from this objective and can be a limiting factor," he added.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video France is a notable exception, given its established military presence in the Indian Ocean. "France, with its presence in Reunion Island and Mayotte, is already cooperating with India in the Indian Ocean theater and this cooperation can be intensified," added Kumar. Javed Ashraf, another Indian diplomat, said that France has been "a strong, trusted and consistent security partner across the full spectrum of defense cooperation." "What makes the partnership easier is the acceptance that the two may not always agree or be in a position to cooperate," said Ashraf.
"France also stands out for India because [France] has currently no defense cooperation with Pakistan or with China," he told DW. While France remains the EU's only nuclear power and maintains its strongest military force, a cooperation between Paris and New Delhi does not automatically translate into a coherent European security role across the Indo-Pacific. "Europe as an entity has very little role in the Indo-Pacific security despite the announcement of a strategy in 2025," said Tara Kartha, a former member of India's National Security Council Secretariat.
She pointed to political differences among EU members as an obstacle to a coherent security outlook. Those differences were on display during the EU's October 15–16 summit in Brussels, when leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine, but also signaled disagreements over funding and national priorities. This could also explain why, as India's defense ties with Europe keep expanding, much of that cooperation still takes place between New Delhi and individual European nations.
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