site.btaIndia's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar Sees Bulgaria as Advocate for Closer India-EU Ties

India and Bulgaria have long-standing good relations and should now make them deeper, broader and more modern, India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told BTA in an interview on Thursday. During a visit to Sofia on Wednesday, Jaishankar met Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Foreign Affairs Minister Velislava Petrova.

“The European Union has 27 member states. We have good relations with all of them, but with some member states we have had a long period of good relations. We are very comfortable with each other, and I think Bulgaria would definitely be one of them,” Jaishankar said.

“We have always had a good relationship, but now we want the relationship to become deeper, to do more things and to have more cooperation in more areas. We want it to be more modern,” he added.

Jaishankar said this was one of the main points in his talks with Radev and Petrova during his visit to Sofia.

“We looked at artificial intelligence, technology and space. We looked, of course, at more trade and investment,” Jaishankar said. “We also recognized that, with the European Union, the free trade agreement would be a very new chapter, and we discussed how to move forward on that.”

India and the EU concluded a free trade agreement at the end of January, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as “the mother of all deals”.

The agreement will improve India’s access to European markets, including Bulgaria’s, and will give European countries greater opportunities to offer their goods and services in India, Jaishankar noted.

“What the free trade agreement would do is improve market access for both sides: from Europe, including Bulgaria, to India, and from India to Europe. It would create a basis for greater investment, much stronger technology collaboration, and trade both in goods and in services,” Jaishankar said.

Stronger economic activity between India and the EU will also strengthen political contacts between Delhi and Brussels, and cooperation will subsequently spread to other areas, such as science, technology, education and culture, Jaishankar added.

He said Sofia has a significant role in the development of India-EU relations. “When the European Union member states meet, we certainly believe that a country such as Bulgaria will speak up for closer ties. That is a message I heard today both from Foreign Minister Petrova and from Prime Minister Radev, who said that Bulgaria will be an advocate of closer relations between India and the European Union. We welcome that, and we are very appreciative of Bulgaria’s approach,” Jaishankar said.

“We have very warm, very comfortable, very long-standing and excellent relations with Bulgaria. But today we have to make this more modern. We have to look at the issues in the world today, for example artificial intelligence, digital technologies, drones, space, the knowledge economy, innovation and start-ups,” he added.

“We have very high expectations of this relationship,” Jaishankar said. “As I said, I am very confident that India-European Union relations and cooperation will grow, and I think Bulgaria, as an important member of the European Union, will certainly make a difference to that.”

He also discussed the free trade agreement with the EU in light of the heightened tension on the international scene caused by the war against Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Jaishankar reiterated India’s position that conflicts should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, “not only to the Middle East, but also to a conflict such as Ukraine”. “This is not the era of war. Problems are not going to be solved through war. It is necessary for parties to find solutions through discussions, dialogue and diplomacy,” he said. “Specifically with regard to the Middle East, we also have concerns about the targeting of civilian infrastructure and energy infrastructure. We also believe that maritime commerce should not be impeded and should not be put in danger.”

According to him, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “may not be such a direct implication” for India and the EU, because most bilateral trade goes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. “But it has definitely raised energy prices. It has created shortages of various kinds, for example in chemicals and plastics,” Jaishankar said. The closure of the strategic sea route affects the whole international economy, and “we want a return to normalization in the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

Jaishankar said Delhi and Brussels have drawn lessons from this crisis. “There is a proposal for an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, IMEC. I think that proposal becomes even more important,” he said.

Jaishankar also commented on another important aspect of India’s foreign policy commitments, its rotating BRICS presidency this year. “I am not sure I would compare BRICS and the European Union,” he said in response to a question about the specific policies the two blocs pursue to expand their influence in the Global South. “The European Union has a different character. These are countries living next to each other. Most of them have a common currency. They have a common visa policy and a common trade policy,” Jaishankar said. “That is not the case with BRICS. The members of BRICS are in different parts of the world. They share some things, and they do not share other things. So I would not get into that comparison.”

“I can only tell you that, where BRICS is concerned, it has advocated for a multipolar world. BRICS believes that, even though its members are very different geographically, historically and in terms of their levels of development, we have common ground. In that common ground, we put emphasis on development. We want to see the world’s diversity, and all the opinions in the international community, reflected,” Jaishankar said. “I think the Global South particularly believes, in many ways, that BRICS has articulated many of its concerns and worries. I think that is a very important point.”