CHINA’S BELLIGERENT flip underneath Xi Jinping and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have had many unexpected penalties, from a disaster over a spy balloon to reinvigorating NATO. One of essentially the most vital side-effects of the brand new age of aggressive autocracies has been a push by the West to draw India closer. In June Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, undertook a state go to to Washington, the place he was feted by the White House, Congress and enterprise leaders alike.

Europe, too, has been making an attempt to get cosier. Last month Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, hosted Mr Modi for a state go to. In February Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, made a visit to Delhi, India’s capital, adopted in March by Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister. Soon after the warfare started final yr, Ursula von der Leyen made her first official go to as president of the European Commission, bringing seven European overseas ministers in tow. Ministers and officers from Hungary, Spain and the Nordics have additionally overwhelmed a path to Delhi.

America is courting India partly as a result of it needs to deepen enterprise hyperlinks with the world’s fastest-growing major economy. But shut ties with India are additionally essential to its technique for coping with Mr Xi. The White House hopes that India can change into another base for provide chains as they diversify away from China. And it needs to strengthen safety ties with India, whose relations with China have been fraught lately. During Mr Modi’s go to in June the 2 nations signed a lot of defence offers, together with to fabricate jet engines in India. Crucially, President Joe Biden kept away from criticising Mr Modi on his authorities’s human-rights file or the erosion of democratic norms.

Europe’s targets are much like America’s, however not equivalent. It, too, wish to enhance commerce hyperlinks with India and see provide chains reshaped. Countering China is much less of a precedence, although; as a substitute Europe needs to get extra nations to oppose Russia’s warfare in Ukraine. And the Europeans place extra emphasis than America on human rights.

The Biden-Modi summit was a giant success. Europe, in distinction, is discovering that three obstacles stand in the best way of higher Indo-European relations. The first is that Europe doesn’t take severely sufficient what it sees as minor irritants however which infuriate India and Indians alike. The European Union’s visa insurance policies for its 27-country free-travel area, often known as Schengen, are a living proof. An EU citizen who needs to attend a convention or a enterprise assembly in India has to fill in a web-based type and pay a price; the visa will arrive inside a number of hours. An Indian making an attempt to make a enterprise journey to Europe has to provide a towering pile of paperwork, after which the applying should still be rejected. On his go to to India Mr Scholz provided easier immigration guidelines for Indian engineers hoping emigrate to Germany. But “how hard can it be to create a fast track for business travellers?” asks Manisha Reuter of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank in Berlin. Visas are additionally a stumbling block for Britain’s makes an attempt to finalise its personal free-trade take care of India.

The second downside is Europe’s demand that India should condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During her go to, Mrs von der Leyen pointedly urged “all members of the international community” to help Europe’s efforts for lasting peace. Officials from many European nations have echoed this line. Such discuss in India is hopeless at finest and counterproductive at worst. The nation prizes strategic autonomy, which it sees as the best to pursue an array of relationships with various companions impartial of their emotions in direction of one another. America has realised {that a} nearer relationship with India means accepting that it has lengthy been near Russia.

The third purpose Europe is struggling to win over India is the concentrate on human rights. The EU pursues a “values-based” overseas coverage. This can ruffle feathers in Delhi, the place officers are delicate about exterior criticism, particularly from Western nations, which they see as hypocrites. A current decision by the European Parliament condemning the Indian authorities’s dealing with of ethnic violence within the north-eastern state of Manipur prompted a pointy rebuke from India’s overseas ministry, to the impact that the matter was “totally internal” and the EU ought to thoughts its personal enterprise.

None of those obstacles is insurmountable. One European chief who appears to have grasped what drives India is Mr Macron. He avoids lecturing, emphatically echoes India’s rhetoric of strategic autonomy, and focuses squarely on safety ties. In July Mr Modi was the visitor of honour on the annual Bastille Day navy parade in Paris, which Mr Macron used with some success to allure President Donald Trump in 2017. As Mr Modi set off from Delhi, India’s Defence Acquisitions Council granted preliminary approval for offers to purchase 26 French Rafale jets and three Scorpène submarines, estimated to be value some $10bn in whole. If different European nations genuinely want nearer ties with India, they might have little selection however to comply with Mr Macron’s instance. ■