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India-Greece Bilateral ties.

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• GS Paper 2 Bilateral ties and groupings, International Relations.
• Tags: #india-greece #upsc #PM #MEA #bilateral relations.

Why in the news?

The Ministry of External Affairs statement said that the Prime Minister of India – Mr. Narendra Modi will be going for an official visit to Greece on 25 August 2023 at the invitation of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece. “This will be the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Greece in 40 years,”.

• Modi’s planned visit to Athens assumed significance as it would be the first prime ministerial visit from India since then prime minister Indira Gandhi visited Greece in September 1983.

Geo-political location of Greece

• Greece is a country of the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey,
• and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and the Libyan seas, and to the west by the Ionian Sea which separates Greece from Italy.
• A new international order uniting three major seas (Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Gulf) and three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa) is being witnessed where Greece has its place at the core.
• Greece aspires to form a vital bridge between Europe, the states of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, with India as its easternmost centre.

How have been India’s relation with Greece?

• India and Greece enjoy civilizational ties, which have strengthened in recent years through cooperation in areas like maritime transport, defense, trade and investments and people-to-people ties.
• To expand overall bilateral ties, both the countries called for fundamental international principles of rule of law and respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity over the issues of cyprus and Libya in 2020.
• They also denounced radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism, in a clear signal of their growing convergence on key geopolitical challenges in the Meditteranean region.

Bilateral relations between India and Greece

Bilateral relations between India and Greece are multifaceted and have grown steadily over the last few years:

• Greece has consistently been supportive of India’s core foreign policy objectives and India concurs with Greece’s emphasis on promoting international law and regional security.
• The two states also share common concerns on issues of international terrorism and have reinforced their ties with bilateral initiatives unfolding on a steady basis.

Diplomatic Relations

• India and Greece can support each other on issues of mutual interest. Greece can offer its support for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) initiative to promote peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the Pacific Ocean.
• Greece is a seafaring nation and it currently hosts one of the greatest merchant fleets globally and thus its vital interests are structurally intertwined with freedom of movement in the seas. This is a common ground with India, a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Economic Relations

• Greece now enjoys a stable economic environment with GDP growth forecasts ranging between 3.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent for 2022–23.
• Indian companies can invest in Greece and the two countries can cooperate on exports of food, industrial and consumer products.
• With a demographic and strategic weight of 1.3 billion people, India can project its ever-growing capabilities over greater areas.
• India’s economic security is also linked to the control of sea routes connecting Europe with India to encourage trade and commerce.

Military relations

• Greece is currently upgrading its military arsenal and plans to invest €10 billion over the next few years in the procurement of sophisticated aircraft and armaments.
• India has also been providing military assistance to Greece, which is at odds with Turkey.
• India and Greece had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation in 1998, which was followed by joint program of the two militaries and periodic visits of Indian warships at the Souda Bay in Crete, the most important naval base in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Greece cooperation could be significantly upgraded with the signing of extensive military cooperation memoranda that shall lay the basis for joint exercises, technology and intelligence sharing.
• The presence of Indian naval forces in the Mediterranean in the framework of joint Indo-Greek aeronautical exercises would be a clear symbolic and practical message of power projection across the Eurasian landmass.
• Strategic partnership with Greece, a NATO and EU member, would further strengthen the notion of India as a valuable partner of Europe in Asia.

Why Greece is important for India?

• Growing ties with Armenia and Greece are also part of India’s larger strategy to diversify its partnerships in the region as it is no longer content to rely on its traditional allies, such as Russia and Iran
• India, strategically located in South Asia, dominates the continental landmass of the Indian Peninsula and the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean.
• Greece is a member of both North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), and its location in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea makes it a country embedded in the Western security network.
• India’s strategic interests to its west extend from the Indian Ocean Region to the Eastern Mediterranean where Greece, a traditionally sea-oriented state, is located.
• In 2020, the two countries signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement, which has led to increased cooperation in areas such as defense, trade, and energy.
• Greece was the country formally joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA), for the realization of the energy goals set by the respective governments to make renewable energy attainable thus reducing dependence on the need for fossil fuels.

Greece’s Stand on India

• Greece supports our quest for permanent seat in an expanded UNSC. It supported India at the NSG in 2008 and in 2016, MTCR, WASSENAAR arrangements, Australia Group.
• It supported India’s candidature for ICJ, ITLOS, IMO, Postal Operations Council (POC), World Heritage Committee and for the position of the External Auditor of the IAEA for the term 2022-27.
• Following India’s nuclear tests in May 1998, when most Western countries were contemplating sanctions against India, the Greek Defense Minister visited India in December 1998 and signed an MOU on Defense Cooperation.
• In June 2021 to Greece, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled in Athens jointly by EAM and Foreign Minister Mr. Nikos Dendias.

Hurdles in India-Greece Relations

• India’s growing ties with Armenia and Greece are unsettling for Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan. These three countries have been working together to strengthen their military capabilities and to counter India’s influence in the Middle East and Central Asia.
• Armenia is a traditional ally of Russia, and Greece is a member of NATO. By strengthening its ties with these countries, India is sending a strong message to the informal triad led by Turkey.

Way Forward

• India should not be aggressively countering these countries. Instead, it must take a more subtle approach, building ties with them one by one. This approach is likely to be more effective in the long run, as it will make it more difficult for them to unite against India.
• India has to take benefits from the fact that the alliance is not a monolithic bloc. There are differences of opinion within the alliance, and India should exploit these differences to its advantage. For example, India has been able to build closer ties with Greece, even though Greece is a member of NATO, which is a major ally of Turkey.
• India’s strategy of quietly but steadily building ties with Armenia, Greece, and Iran is a smart move. It is a strategy that is likely to pay dividends in the years to come.

Source: Indian Express