Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be the chief guest at the annual Raisina Dialogue held in New Delhi from 21 to 24 February 2024.
This would be the third consecutive year of having a European guest at the summit — Delhi hosted European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen in 2022 and Italian PM Georgia Meloni in 2023. The business delegation accompanying Mitsotakis will visit Mumbai and Bengaluru as well and is likely to explore economic opportunities in sectors such as construction material manufacturing, food and beverages, defence, renewable energy sources, high technology, agriculture, shipping, and tourism.
Mitsotakis’ visit marks a significant upgrade to India-Greece bilateral ties. It also builds on Delhi’s strategic outreach to Southern Europe and the Mediterranean within the expanding diplomatic footprint in Europe at large.
No strangers
India and Greece are among the world’s oldest democracies, both being ancient cultures and civilisations that reinvented their ethos through various epochs. Early Greeks knew of the river Ganges and called it Phison and the great Greek political philosopher Plato knew of the Indian tradition of mystic meditations. The latter’s celebrated work The Republic concludes with a reflection on the transmigration of souls, which has an indelible mark of Indian spiritualism. From Mauryan-era trade to the fascinating chronicles of Alexander the Great, linkages with Greece were significant in ancient India. Despite sharing such a rich history of economic and cultural exchanges, the ties between the two countries never moved beyond a point.
Until now.
PM Narendra Modi has carved the space to upgrade the ties between the two countries to a strategic partnership that’s suitable to today’s fast-changing geopolitical context. His efforts have opened up newer pathways of cooperation amid fresh challenges.
From India’s perspective, Greece was the only natural ally with whom strategic cooperation had not been given the same attention as Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and France. For the first time in 40 years, an Indian PM visited Greece when Modi went to Athens in August 2023, where he was rightly conferred with Greece’s Grand Cross of the Order of Honour, the country’s second-highest civilian honour.
This upgradation to a strategic partnership was built on the groundwork laid by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in 2021 when he paid an official visit to Greece. The following year, the Greek parliament ratified the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a treaty-based organisation that was proposed by Modi in 2015. In March 2022, Jaishankar’s visit was returned by his then-Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.
This slew of developments has been instrumental in enhancing ties between the two countries. It opened new vistas to expand areas of convergence in not only trade and joint military exercises but also connectivity projects, which could help in the full utilisation of Greece’s strategic location as a gateway to Europe for India and the Gulf countries. The much-touted India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was conceived on the same logic of connecting diverse geographies of South and West Asia to Europe through Haifa in Israel and Piraeus in Greece. The region is a prospective yet contested pathway for new, competing intercontinental connectivity corridors. Many wrote off the IMEC when Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 put the normalisation process on hold. But remarks made by Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament and Modi in the United Arab Emirates have roused fresh interest in the project. It is likely to be back on track once the situation in the Middle East improves.
Geopolitics beyond connectivity
Northern Cyprus declared independence in 1983 with Turkish support, sealing the fate of the region in a perpetual disquiet – the power balance in the Eastern Mediterranean has been fragile ever since. India has supported the commitment to a bicommunal, bizonal federation based on United Nations (UN) resolutions. Delhi’s official position on Cyprus is welcomed by Athens, which also backs India’s bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council and shares common interests in the current global order.
Moreover, Greece has shown solidarity with India during critical international agreements relating to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Australia Group, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
In recent years, the Eastern Mediterranean has become more militarised and geopolitically fraught. Already divided over Greek and Turkish populations of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey have locked horns over the ownership of gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean. Since 2020, the situation has flared up even more, with both sides escalating military deployments in the region.
The tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean are directly relevant to Delhi when one considers Turkey’s support to Pakistan on Kashmir and at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). India has been miffed by Turkey’s support to Pakistan’s internationalisation of the Kashmir issue. Ankara’s criticism of the abrogation of Article 370 was also met with indignation in Delhi, which has responded by counterbalancing the Pakistan-Turkey axis by expanding outreach in Turkey’s own backyard — improving defence relations with Greece and Cyprus.
Against the backdrop of the Ukraine war and the improvement of US-Turkey ties, Athens and Istanbul, both NATO members, have vowed to improve bilateral ties. But that does not alter Turkey’s position on either Pakistan or Kashmir.
Furthermore, China’s economic dominance in Greece and the larger region makes it imperative for India to step up its own game. Lest it’s forgotten, it was China that had bailed out a financially ailing Greece after the infamous Greek financial crisis of 2009, which spread to other parts of the EuroZone later on. At the time, China exploited the opportunity to deepen its foreign investment in a fiscally outstretched Greece and from there to other parts of Europe. Greece became the first European country to join Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the port of Piraeus became its hub. Even today, Chinese companies own operations at Piraeus.
Now, with renewed economic confidence, Greece is looking for ways to untangle itself from Chinese overinvestments. It is true for other signatories to the IMEC as well, who looking for trade diversification from China.
Improved economic performance during the two terms of Mitsotakis has raised Athens’ credit rating to investment grade. In the second quarter of 2023, the country recorded the second-fastest GDP growth in the European Union (EU) and looks poised to tap the potential of India’s massive economic clout.
Defence and security vectors
India-Greece defence ties have upgraded from what they were in 1998 when the first MoU on Defence Cooperation was signed. This was followed by joint programmes of the two militaries and periodic visits of Indian warships at the Souda Bay in Crete, with the latest round having taken place in July 2023. In April, the Indian Air Force, for the first time, participated in the multinational exercise INIOCHOS 23, which was hosted by the Hellenic Air Force with four Su30 and two C-17 aircraft. In September 2023, four Greek F-16s had their maiden participation in Tarang Shakti, India’s largest air exercise.
The co-training of Indian and Greek pilots and the familiarisation with the Greek F-16s (the jet that’s the backbone of the Pakistan Air Force) may prove useful for Delhi.
A dialogue mechanism also has been agreed upon between the two countries’ respective national security advisors.
What could be of deep interest to India is defence industry cooperation with Greece, which is upgrading its military arsenal. It plans to invest €10 billion over the next few years in the procurement of sophisticated aircraft and armament. The US recently approved the Foreign Military Sale to Greece for up to 40 F-35 5th generation fighter aircraft. Athens and Delhi can explore India’s vibrant defence industry ecosystem to jointly produce and export a variety of defence equipment.
Finally, with one of the largest fleets of merchant vessels, Greece can be a useful addition to India’s engagements in the Indo-Pacific, the goal being to uphold freedom of navigation with like-minded partners.
India-Greece ties are mutually beneficial, in sync with geoeconomic and geo-strategic currants, with a strong mooring in civilisational links. The vast unexplored potential beckons.
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