External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is halfway through her whirlwind four-country tour across Europe—her longest trip in a while. The minister's visit to Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg is aimed at resuming negotiations on the stalled EU-India free trade pact, among other things.
Her first stop was Italy where the external affairs minister tried to forge a new beginning in deplomatic relations. Sushma Swaraj met Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and discussed steps to boost bilateral ties. India indicated that it wants to move beyond the bitterness that the Italian Marines issue caused. On the cards post the visit are closer people-to-people ties and identifying new areas of cooperation to boost trade and investment ties.
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With her visit to Luxembourg, Sushma Swaraj will script history by being the first external affairs minister to visit the country even as the countries are celebrating 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.
The intention of the Union government is clear—greater engagement with the European nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the Nordic countries earlier this year, and while Sushma Swaraj is crisscrossing Europe, President Ram Nath Kovind is in Greece, securing support for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
“It is interesting that India is reaching out to smaller European countries. This started with PM Modi's visit to the smaller Baltic countries. India wants to use all its cards in Europe,'' said Britta Peterson, senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. “Earlier, there was engagement with the UK, Germany and France.”
This attempt to expand diplomatic engagement is certainly a welcome move. In the scheme of things is the plan to cover 192 countries recognised by the UN. This is essential as in the first part of Modi's term as the prime minister, Europe wasn't accorded much significance. There were some interactions, but for the most part, it wasn't seen as his priority. It didn't help that the trade negotiations were heading nowhere, and despite Modi's push for economic ties, he wasn't able to make much progress.
In a changing world of rising China and Trump, it makes sense for the Europe to renew diplomatic engagement with India. “Both sides have also come to the conclusion that the elephant in the room, the trade negotiations, is not going away in a hurry and it is time to look at other areas,” said Peterson, adding that focus will be on security cooperation and areas of common interest like West Africa.
Hence, the external affairs minister's speech at the high-level event ‘Climate, Peace and Security: Time for Action’ will fit in perfectly. And so does yoga. Come Thursday, Sushma Swaraj will stretch out with the Indian community in Brussels to lead the yoga day celebrations. It helps to be flexible.