EU's new friend: India

"BRUSSELS: India is all set to open talks on Monday to forge a strategic partnership with the European Union, a status so far restricted to just five big countries.

“India is very interested in this partnership, it will give it the status of a big player,” said an EU official ahead of the bloc’s one-day meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh and two of his ministers in the Hague."

economictimes.indiatimes.com...

"Many Europeans also believe India — which is pressing for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council — could be a multilateralist ally in resisting what they see as the current US administration’s unilateralism."

I wonder How U.S. feels about this, especially this coming after Bush's reelection success.

Surf

Given India's long and historic links to Europe - and particularly the UK - this should really come as no surprise.

Originally posted by sminkeypinkey
Given India's long and historic links to Europe - and particularly the UK - this should really come as no surprise.

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Right, ask- LA REINE of UK.

as mentioned by surfup
"Many Europeans also believe India � which is pressing for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council � could be a multilateralist ally in resisting what they see as the current US administration�s unilateralism."

I wonder How U.S. feels about this, especially this coming after Bush's reelection success.

India is an economic vacuum sucking up anyone who wishes to participate, the U.S. included. 'Friends' embodies what exactly? An economic 'friend', an military 'friend', perhaps a social 'friend'? 'Friend,' in the applied case of the article, is simply a reference to some members within the EU who are seeking 'friends' to agree with their international policy towards the U.S. (ie: Germany and France).

Btw, the U.S. military has been working with the Indian AirForce of late, in bettering relations and cooperation with the U.S. My guess is the EU sees this and is trying to 'play' in India also.




seekerof

Originally posted by Seekerof
India is an economic vacuum sucking up anyone who wishes to participate, the U.S. included. 'Friends' embodies what exactly? An economic 'friend', an military 'friend', perhaps a social 'friend'? 'Friend,' in the applied case of the article, is simply a reference to some members within the EU who are seeking 'friends' to agree with their international policy towards the U.S. (ie: Germany and France).

Btw, the U.S. military has been working with the Indian AirForce of late, in bettering relations and cooperation with the U.S. My guess is the EU sees this and is trying to 'play' in India also.

Hi seekerof, long time no see. In fact we were talking about you in chat the other day.

I meant it in all terms of friend: economical, social and military.

U.S. is very unhappy over the job outsourcing, which is benifiting India very much, so E.U. might have thought this was the best time to forge a friendship with India.

Not only the military exercises, U.S. has also loosened up a lot on his restrictions which came in light of India's portbandar nuclear testing (98, i think).

It will be interesting to see which one prevails in the long run.

Surf