India-EU Strategic Partnership: Perceptions and Perspectives

Abstract

Strategic partnerships have, in fact, become a key foreign policy instrument in a multipolar world and are increasingly perceived as both a process and a format in which to conduct foreign relations with major players. A variety of adjectives have been used to describe the India-EU strategic partnership since its establishment in 2004. This paper first discusses the nature of the concept of strategic partnership, and examines European and Indian perceptions of this concept. It then evaluates the key challenges confronting the decade- long India-EU strategic partnership, before making a number of concluding observations.