[The Mother of All Deals : Beyond Trade] – From Free Trade Towards a Multidimensional Partnership?

Contemporary democracies have become democracies of approbation. That is the thesis of Pierre Rosenvallon in his reflections on the sources of legitimacy of power. In our times, beyond the "legitimacy of establishment" stemming from elections, citizens demand that their leaders take into account the peculiar situations of all while remaining impartial. He calls these new sources of legitimacy impartiality, reflexivity and proximity. This "metamorphosis of legitimacy" provides barriers against the tyranny of the majority or the advent of authoritarian leaders through elections.

Building on this framework, one can consider that European and Indian policy dynamics share a prevalence of home and close neighbourhood affairs over external agendas. This trait tends to be distinctive of modern democratic regimes. Public opinions expect in the first place that policy improves domestic socio-economic conditions. For Joseph Mackay, legitimacy in the EU is linked to "a combination of democratic consent within member states and the EU's capacity to effectively deliver specified functions". In India as well, questions related to subsistence are central, as have been seen in the 2024 general elections. The political agenda in European countries and in India are dominated by broadly similar themes: socioeconomic conditions, citizenry and migration, climate change, AI policies and relationships with close neighbours. Naturally, policy answers in these fields differ depending the contexts. For India, the major socioeconomic challenges are the uplifting of the population out of poverty, energy access, education and healthcare development, and investment attraction. "Viksit Bharat 2047", the official development roadmap, aims to make India a developed country for its centenary in 2047. On the EU side, the major challenge is to search for enhanced productivity in the face of an aging workforce, to restore competitiveness in industry and tech and to secure energy access as is expounded in the Letta and Draghi reports of 2024.

On AI and tech governance, European countries and India push for a "third way" that introduces human-centric approaches in the use of new generative technologies. This was the leitmotiv of India in the 2026 AI-summit hosted in Delhi. Here again, domestic considerations of consumer protection and social inclusion trump strategic considerations of countering hegemonic leadership. According to Srivastava, both regions should aim to distinguish themselves from American and Chinese dominant players through developing targeted and specific applications.

When it comes to managing relationships with close neighbourhood countries, Indian and EU democracies are primarily driven by a willingness to protect internal interests. In the EU, the war in Ukraine and instability in the Middle East rank as top neighbourhood concerns. For India, the strained relationships with Pakistan, Bangladesh and China (notably for watery supply) as well as the strategic partnership with Gulf Cooperation Council countries are key. The "neighbourhood first" policy in "concentric" circles is the absolute priority of the Modi administration.

Dealing with Autocracies that Project Power Abroad

In contrast with democracies, world powers that exhibit autocratic or imperialistic traits often base their legitimacy on power projection at the global scale, presented through the lens of absolute necessity. The pursuit of foreign agendas is often used as a reason for hard domestic choices. This dynamic had already been observed by Raymond Aron in a 1939 lecture entitled Democratic and Totalitarian States. According to Mackay, the trick for empires seeking legitimation is "not to make it appear normatively good but to make alternatives appear difficult or impossible to attain".

Russia is the prime example of precedence of an imperial external agenda over internal affairs. The war in Ukraine for instance is framed as a civilizational endeavour, to be pursued whatever the human and economic cost. Albeit China appears to care about improvement of socioeconomic conditions of its population, it is also envisioning a decisive role globally. Its current leverage of industrial, raw materials and financial chokepoints, or its economic development strategies along the Belt and Road regions and Africa fit well with a nostalgic quest for a grand China.

The US also increasingly obeys to this imperial appetite for foreign adventures over home affairs. The Trump II administration seeks external recognition of its grandeur by showcasing brute strength: economically through coercive policies, militarily through reckless expeditions and even morally through (nothing less than absurd) papal intimidation. The question remains whether a "bread and games" approach - whereby the population is treated as subject of an emperor rather than as members of a political community - finds resonance with the American people. Next midterm elections will show whether this idea of legitimacy according to Trump is shared by the American citizens.

Conditions for a Democratic Partnership in an Age of Empires

India and the European Union show convergences in their institutional and democratic cultures. The history of their foundation features profound parallels: post-World War II peace projects, led by visionary and engaged founding Fathers, that rejected imperialism of the past and promoted universal values. From the outset, the central tension of political progress has been the opposition between nationalist and federalist tendencies: secular pluralism versus Muslim and Hindu nationalism in India, and national sovereignty versus European integration on the Old Continent. In both democratic blocs, human dignity and the rule of law are deeply enshrined in society, albeit with distinct accents. Both continents want to engage in multilateral diplomacy, while requiring pragmatic approaches with erratic autocratic world powers.

Henceforth, can the "Mother of all Deals", the trade agreement sealed on the 27th of January 2026, bear fruits in a context where armed conflicts and weaponization of economic policies become mainstream? Six conditions can help the European Union and India to deepen their bond and to promote democracy beyond trade only.

Commit to Bloc-to-Bloc Cooperation Rather Than Bilateralism

First, European and Indian leaders must recognize that the appropriate level of cooperation with each other is from federation to federation. For too long, India has prioritized bilateral relations with individual EU Member States, struggling to engage with the EU as a whole, while the EU has struggled to present a unified front. The recent Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that came after decades of negotiations seems to mark a turning point from that perspective.

Leverage Mutual Strengths for Improving Socio-Economic and Environmental Conditions

Second, the EU and India together can achieve unprecedented numbers of inhabitants and diversity of industrial capabilities, natural resources, intellectual and technical skills and knowledge. This scale and diversity must be embraced. Competencies must be pooled and methods shared to solve their domestic agendas of improvement of socio-economic and environmental conditions.

For the EU, it is critical to maintain social cohesion and a sustainable economy in the decades ahead. For India, raising living standards to lift millions out of poverty is a priority and the country is in full march. For doing so, energy access, productivity and education must be improved in both blocs. Critical steps are the attraction of domestic investments and a mastery over disruptive technologies such as AI.

The challenge of this century is to do all of the above while ensuring environmental liveability. Mutual exchanges on technological but also organisational and behavioural aspects must help mitigate and adapt to intense and volatile climate conditions.

Coordinate on US and China Relations

Third, India and the EU should coordinate their stance with the US and with China at the highest level. According to Sylvia Malinbaum, researcher at IFRI, long term durability of EU and India ties will largely depend on the future relations between India and Russia on the one hand and between China and the US on the other hand. Both for India and the EU relationships with the US and China are a top priority. For such a coordination, a permanent EU-India Strategic Council should be created, co-chaired by the European Commission President and the Indian Prime Minister. It would oversee all dimensions of the partnership and especially coordinate responses to economic coercion by the US or China.

Form a coalition for Reform of Multilateral Institutions

Fourth, the EU and India must jointly champion the reform of global multilateral institutions as an immediate strategic priority rather than a distant aspiration. As Valeria Santi, researcher at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics (BIG), notes: "Although the EU and India formally converge in their support for multilateralism and a rules-based international order, their approaches to global governance differ. The EU has traditionally acted as a normative and institutional champion of multilateral governance, whereas India views multilateralism more instrumentally, emphasizing sovereignty, strategic autonomy and reform to address Global South underrepresentation. Alignment lies in their shared interest in reforming rather than dismantling multilateral institutions amid rising great power rivalry."

The EU, that supports the "UN80" initiative of Antonio Guterres as well as the "Pact for the Future" to modernize global governance, and India already dedicate much of their diplomatic efforts to this end, but each separately. The two largest democratic blocs should co-lead a coalition for institutional reform. A priority of this coalition would be a long overdue UN Security Council reform, allowing for increased permanent representation of certain countries, chiefly India. Another priority would be to coalesce the EU and Global South countries to revise quotas and votes at the IMF and the World Bank to better reflect the growing size of their economies and populations. Likewise, joint efforts to reform the WTO and to make climate governance more effective must be pursued. The divide in these fora is no longer between groups of different development levels but between democracies and autocratic empires.

Openly Claim the Peaceful Mission of Democracies

Fifth, to overcome nationalist tendencies at home and abroad, European and Indian leaders must openly state their commitment for democracy on grounds of peace. Surprisingly few prominent figures openly engage with the fact that European integration and the creation of the Republic of India were primarily aimed at achieving peace by abiding to universal values. The general mood seems to remember democracy as a mere technical decision-making procedure. Yet democratic principles are primarily a practice for the peaceful co-living of diverse members of a polity.

As (religious) nationalist figures are prospering in Europe and are currently in power in India, opinion leaders must explicitly advocate for universal values of freedom, human dignity, rule of law, peace and fraternity. Deterministic discourses claiming that a return of power politics and autocracy is an irresistible feature of the times that one should acknowledge with realism only fuels populist discourses more. European and Indian citizens crave for leaders having the agency to change the course of events through their courage.

A courageous plea for freedom, peace and fraternity shall include citizens of abroad. If European and Indian democracies are to ultimately make autocratic empires bend abroad, and make nationalist tendencies vanish within, it will be first and foremost by considering all humans, in- and outside of their boundaries, as possessing an equal dignity.

Cultivate Interpersonal Bonds

The deepest and most enduring bonds between people are not forged by treaties, but by the curiosity and friendship of individuals. To realize their full potential of democratic partnership, the EU and India must invest in cultural exchanges that bring their citizens together. It is through student mobility, worker visas, friendships and family ties that lasting convergence and companionship emerge.

Education is a particularly powerful vector for this exchange and educational partnerships are key to building mutual understanding. The EU and India have already committed to dialogue on this in their Joint Comprehensive Agenda for 2030 signed along the FTA. But execution must come fast and overcome two main obstacles: language barriers in education and visa complexity.

Cultural collaboration could explore new creative avenues. As the EU Ambassador to India Hervé Delphin has noted, cinema and the arts can connect India and Europe in ways that transcend government and business interactions, creating bridges of understanding and empathy. In matters of sports, why not constitute an European team for next cricket world cup, drawing the best players from all 27 member states, as a symbolic hand stretched towards Indians that have a unique passion for this sport? Such initiatives would signal a willingness to establish mutual respect and fraternity.

Jean Monnet once said about Europe "We are not making a coalition of states, but uniting people". In the aftermath of the Free Trade Agreement, the EU and India have now the opportunity to build a human partnership, rooted in a curiosity and friendship of their people.

Copyright image : Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP
Narendra Modi alongside European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, on January 27, 2026.