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When India signed the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with a bloc of four European countries — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland — last week, the growing role of trade in diplomacy came under sharp focus.
India’s Commerce Minister termed the deal “historic” in its ambit and potential for investment from the bloc. The TEPA seeks to attract fresh Foreign Direct Investments to the tune of $100 billion to India, while creating one million jobs. The pact comes on the heels of a host of bilateral agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), spanning both trade and investment, following the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed with the UAE in 2022.
The speed at which the TEPA was sealed, despite it being stalled for the last decade, has been commended by many. It is not only the swift pace of negotiations that has drawn attention, but also the contents of the agreement itself. The EFTA pact, expected to be ratified by the end of 2024, marks the first time that India has agreed to include non-trade issues such as labour, human rights, environment, and gender in an economic agreement. “Whether the inclusion of these issues in trade deals is necessary can be debated, but this is a positive augury for potential allies such as the EU that consider them critical,” The Hindu editorial noted.
Meanwhile, India is “seriously considering” starting talks for a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Aleinik declared during his two-day visit to India. “India is focusing on industrial cooperation projects in order to switch from simple trade, which we have been engaged in so far. This creates prerequisites for the enterprises of our manufacturing sector to enter the Indian market, set up assembly plants, localise products, primarily in the field of agricultural engineering, mining, passenger equipment,” the Minister said.
With trade emerging as an integral arm of India’s foreign relations, including in the neighbourhood, the changing terrain of Indian diplomacy will be an interesting space to watch!
All the same, diplomacy can never be all about numbers and pacts, as tensions with Canada on the killing of Khalistani separatist Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar shows. Canada said on Thursday that it continues to “actively” investigate the killing of Khalistani separatist Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The comment, that came in response to statements by New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters during his visit to Delhi, where he spoke about the case in Canada, and evidence shared thus far by Canadian authorities, Suhasini Haidar reports.
India has also rebuffed criticism over from its international partners on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The U.S. State Department’s criticism of the Act is “misinformed and unwarranted”, India said on March 15, in a sharp rebuke.
Top 5 picks this week:
- India was the world’s top arms importer for the period 2019-23 with imports having gone up by 4.7% compared to the period 2014-18, according to the Swedish think tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Dinakar Peri writes.
- A wind power project being executed by Adani Green Energy in northern Sri Lanka has run into controversy.
- The Myanmar conflict is a regional problem, writes Soe Myint.
- Sameer Patil and Sarral Sharma write on the military’s continuing hold over Pakistan.
- It’s ‘Ra-Ra-Ras-Putin’ in the Russian election, write Amitabh Singh and Ankur Dixit
