December 12, 2023 – December 13, 2023
Recent momentum in India’s ties with Europe has been accompanied by a calibrated outreach by India towards other regions in the continent beyond its traditional ties with Western Europe. The Indian government has stepped up engagement with the Nordic states, Greece and Italy in the South, as well as Central & Eastern Europe. The India-CEE relationship in particular, right before the pandemic, in 2019, witnessed a slew of diplomatic visits and outreach. India’s foreign minister visited Bulgaria and Serbia, its president travelled to Slovenia, and its vice president undertook the first high-level government visits to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, laying the foundation for political dialogue. Since then, the war in Ukraine has raised pertinent questions about how India’s ties with Russia, and the US, are viewed in Central and Eastern Europe with its distinct security and threat perceptions from Western Europe. This panel seeks to explore the current moment in India-CEE relations–the evolving nature of ties set against the backdrop of Central & Eastern Europe’s changing geopolitics and the potential it holds across avenues such as trade, investment, education, innovation, and cultural exchanges.
