EU, India eye defence and security deal; France wants defense excluded from EU budget rules
by AFP Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) Feb 28, 2025
The European Union is exploring a security and defence partnership with India, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday before meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Von der Leyen arrived in India on Thursday for a two-day visit with her college of commissioners seeking to hedge against souring relations with its traditional ally, the United States.
The delegation aims to deepen its diplomatic and trade ties with the world’s fifth-largest economy after US President Donald Trump announced a slew of tariffs against both friends and foes.
The EU also hopes to find common ground with India on their shared concerns over China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific, building resilient supply chains, and the governance of new technologies including artificial intelligence.
“I can announce that we are exploring a future Security and Defence Partnership with India in the mould of the partnerships we have with Japan and South Korea,” the EU chief said in a public speech in the Indian capital on Friday.
“This will help us step up our work to counter common threats, whether on cross-border terrorism, maritime security threats, cyber-attacks or the new phenomenon we see: attacks on our critical infrastructure,” she added.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner, accounting for 124 billion euros ($130 billion) worth of trade in goods in 2023 — more than 12 percent of total Indian trade, according to Brussels.
The Indian market offers many opportunities for sectors ranging from defence to agriculture, cars and clean energy. Yet, protected by high tariffs, it currently accounts for only 2.2 percent of EU trade in goods.
The bloc is pushing for a trade deal that lowers entry barriers for its cars, spirits, wines and other products.
New Delhi meanwhile hopes for higher EU investments in areas such as clean energy, urban infrastructure and water management.
Modi has pushed for joint local ventures and a more streamlined migration policy for its skilled professionals.
“A free trade agreement between the EU and India would be the largest deal of this kind anywhere in the world,” Von der Leyen said.
“It will not be easy,” she added. “But I also know that timing and determination counts… This is why we have agreed with Prime Minister Modi to push to get it done during this year.”
The two sides are also expected to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Historically close to Russia, its traditional supplier of military hardware, it has resisted Western pressure to distance itself from Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
France wants defence excluded from EU spending rules: PM
Paris (AFP) Feb 27, 2025 –
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Thursday he wants defence spending excluded from EU spending rules, in an interview with the daily Figaro.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month that the EU would suspend public spending rules to ramp up defence investments as the US commitment to European security has come under question.
EU members are bound by spending rules obliging them to keep the public deficit below three percent of economic output and debt at 60 percent of GDP.
But the EU can suspend the rules in exceptional circumstances and crises, as it did during the coronavirus pandemic when states had to prop up their embattled economies.
Bayrou told the Figaro: “I share the opinion of those who say that ‘in these dangerous circumstances military spending should be excluded from European deficit rules.”
“Our country has made efforts that others haven’t in building our defence industry,” said Bayrou. “That’s a significant asset.”
Von der Leyen said earlier this month at the annual Munich Security Conference that she believes Europe was in a period of crisis that justifies suspending the deficit rule for defence spending.
Since returning to the White House in January US President Donald Trump has called on NATO members to more than double their defence spending and aligned the United States with Russian rhetoric on the war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month slammed the EU’s fiscal rules as “obsolete” in an interview with the Financial Times.
Since the summer, France has been part of a group of eight countries facing the EU’s excessive deficit procedure, with Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
France’s 2024 public deficit is expected to come in around six percent of GDP and Bayrou’s government aims to bring it down to 5.4 percent in 2025.
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