Old values, new avenues: On India-Poland ties

Sixteen years after his visit as Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk’s travel to Delhi and Bengaluru last week was to signal a renewed desire to work closely with India. Mr. Tusk’s visit, two months ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Brussels to sign the India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement, indicated one part of his agenda. Both sides agreed that it was time to develop trade, currently worth just $6 billion, to double its size by 2030. Mr. Tusk’s last visit to India was in 2017, as President of the European Council for the EU-India summit, and it is fitting that his trip was just as the FTA is finalised and ratified after years of delays. Another area of increased India-Poland collaboration is in technology, AI and defence hardware, critical minerals, renewable and nuclear energy given Poland’s expertise in the last few decades and India’s capacity for scale. As the EU’s sixth largest economy, Poland has officially crossed the $1 trillion GDP (nominal terms) milestone. Its $120-billion-dollar tech economy is also gaining global interest. A large part of Polish machinery and parts is exported to Germany, which in turn has a growing share of Indian imports, and India could consider more trilateral collaborations for manufacturing and mining technology. The two sides agreed to establish a “Defence Industry Dialogue” and explore a dialogue on counter-terrorism cooperation. Finally, the Modi-Tusk talks focused on geopolitics, particularly the ongoing war in Ukraine. The war’s impact, especially on the Global South, has been a concern for India, and the Modi government’s initiative to work on an agreement acceptable to Kyiv and Moscow on grain exports and seafarers’ safety was discussed. The four-pronged plan, announced by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his September visit to Warsaw, won Mr. Tusk’s support.

At the India-Poland Business Forum in Bengaluru, Mr. Tusk, who was accompanied by a Polish business delegation, said the challenge now was in “translating” the talks and MoUs signed into actual joint ventures between businesses. Apart from the distance and geographies, there is the matter of trust, given India’s defence engagement with Russia and Poland’s defence ties with Pakistan. Poland is credited with training Pakistan’s Air Force in its early years; a mutual defence cooperation agreement was signed in 2018. India has a unique and enduring partnership with Russia, and New Delhi is unlikely to accept Warsaw’s strictures over its military engagement and exercises with Russia that caused a controversy earlier this year during the Polish Foreign Minister’s visit. It is essential for Delhi and Warsaw to complete the confidentiality of classified information that is still being negotiated and draw up the parameters of future cooperation based on realities. Mr. Tusk’s statement that India and Poland today have no “conflicts of interest” is a significant aspiration, for two countries that share old values, and new avenues of partnership.