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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez’s two-day official visit to India last week concluded with the signing of several unprecedented agreements in the history of the relationship between the two countries. Although these agreements mark a roadmap in sectors as diverse as trade, military-industrial, scientific-technological, political, and cultural, India will not suddenly become a pawn like many in the West hope for.
“We want to support India’s growth, especially in three major strategic sectors: renewable energy and sustainable development, urban infrastructure and mobility, and digitization,” said Sánchez in Gujarat, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received him.
Both leaders inaugurated an Airbus factory that will produce 40 C295 tactical transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force, a Spanish design whose manufacture will be undertaken. The investment amounts to €2.202 billion, and negotiations are underway to manufacture another 100 aircraft.
At the same time, during the inauguration of the Spain-India Business Forum in Mumbai, Sánchez highlighted that 230 Spanish companies have already set up shop under the impetus of the Modi Government’s “Make in India” plan. He also said he was “proud” to contribute to the country’s industrial development and highlighted the establishment in Spain of Indian companies in the IT, automotive, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Trade between Spain and India in 2023 grew by 30% compared to 2021, exceeding €7.5 billion. Sánchez wants this to increase by promoting Spain as the “ideal base” in which India can invest to expand into the European market.
“Our country is open to business,” said the Spanish president, who expressed the hope that “more Indian companies” will soon operate in the Iberian country.
He also expressed his conviction that, in order to build a better Spain, it is necessary to “strengthen ties” with the world’s major economies, “diversify diplomatic relations,” and go “beyond” the traditional external treatment that the EU provides to other nations. In other words, Spain is aware that the centre of power in the world has shifted to Asia, as reflected in a note by the press service of the Presidency of the Government.
Sánchez’s appeal in Mumbai to build flexible foreign relations beyond the European corset recalled what he said in September in Beijing when he distanced himself from Brussels’s rigid tariff policy against China and advocated against a trade war.
However, the unprecedented strengthening of Indo-Spanish relations may have a strategic component that serves other interests of the Euro-Atlantic axis. Although Sánchez advocates against tariffs, it does not mean that he does not identify Beijing as a challenge to the EU’s global influence, which is why there is hope that India can serve as a counter.
The West wants India to compete with China in the region and leverages the border conflict between the two Asian giants. The West and India attempt to reduce China’s influence (such as committing to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor to challenge the Belt and Road Initiative), with European policymakers arguing that the EU’s interest is to negotiate with an India that has historically been open to all sides and to boost its position vis-à-vis China, the target of tariff sanctions.
However, this does not mean India is a pawn of the West since it simply plays on all sides to advance its interests.
In fact, India is one of the EU’s energy guarantors, given that many member states buy hydrocarbons of Russian origin from the South Asian country. This situation is another demonstration that India is pursuing an independent path despite pressure from the West to conform, through investment incentives, to the anti-Russia agenda.
It is recalled that Sánchez’s visit to India was preceded by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who also concluded agreements on renewable energy, digital cooperation, and military projects.
The Spanish and German visits to India pursued similar objectives in bilateral civil collaboration projects and military ones. The visit of Scholz and Sánchez, leaders of the EU’s largest and fourth largest economies, respectively, to India shows how much importance the European elite are placing on the country at this moment in time.
Although these trade ties will prove fruitful, Europe will nonetheless be disappointed since cooperation traditionally also hinged on countries submitting to the bloc’s supposed “values” and aligning with its policies, something New Delhi will clearly not do, particularly regarding Russia, a country the Indians have longheld ties with.
In effect, India will continue cooperating with Western countries in trade and challenging Chinese influence but will not become a pawn to the West.
Sánchez presents a front of openness. However, his policies against Russia and support of Ukraine show that he will always align with the Atlantic bloc when major issues arise. This means that if a trade war started with China, he would undoubtedly join the tariffs regime despite his calls to avoid one.
There is much alignment between India and the EU on issues of trade and China. Still, New Delhi also understands that if the West were to turn against it, as it has with Russia and, to a lesser extent, China, countries like Spain and Germany that seek to take advantage of opportunities that India provides would also quickly turn.
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