October 24, 2012

Toward Strategic Cooperation between India, the United States, and Europe

My policy brief on relations between India, the United States, and Europe was published by GMF on October 24, 2012. A summary is below, and the full text can be accessed here.

The fifth India Trilateral Forum identified several areas of convergence between India, the United States, and Europe. These included a shared sense of stability despite continuing political paralysis, guarded optimism about India’s economic future, a commitment to Afghanistan’s development beyond 2014, a desire for stable relations with China despite concerns about its unfair economic practices, the necessity of Myanmar’s gradual democratization and regional economic integration, and the need for stronger international regimes to enable continued access to space and an open Internet.

But the Forum also highlighted important areas of divergence, provoking questions deserving of further discussion. These pertained to the importance of Indian economic reforms for future cooperation, the prospects of deeper trade relations, ways to alter Pakistan’s strategic calculus, the effects of greater economic interdependence with China, and the importance of Bangladesh to India’s integration with Southeast Asia.