As technology increasingly becomes the central arena of geopolitical competition, reshaping global power dynamics, the India-EU partnership stands at a critical juncture to expand strategic influence through joint action. The bilateral Trade and Technology Council (TTC), launched in 2023, and the EU’s new five-pillar strategic agenda for India, published in September 2025, collectively present an unprecedented opportunity to build a consequential democratic technology alliance. India and the EU could seize the moment to pitch together an actionable agenda as the UN’s Global Mechanism for ICT security, agreed in July 2025, is implemented. The question is whether these frameworks can be operationalised with sufficient urgency to shape the global digital order.

Although the September 2025 strategic agenda awaits formal adoption at an early 2026 summit, it explicitly positions technology and innovation as one of five core pillars alongside security, connectivity, prosperity, and sustainability. This elevation of technology from a subset of economic cooperation to a standalone strategic pillar reflects a fundamental political recognition: digital infrastructure, cyber capabilities, and emerging technologies are now essential to the issue of strategic autonomy and reshaping geopolitical influence. For democracies seeking alternatives between American tech dominance and Chinese digital authoritarianism, political decisions regulating the digital arena matter profoundly.
Amidst the growing digital contestation, the India-EU TTC provides the institutional architecture for this technology partnership; however, its operationalisation has lacked ambition. While working groups on semiconductors, digital connectivity, and emerging technologies exist on paper, concrete deliverables remain modest. This disconnect reflects structural challenges — the EU’s consensus-driven processes, India’s domestic policy complexities, and the absence of an executive authority characterising the US-EU TTC. But it also reveals a deeper political malaise: The tendency to treat technology cooperation as a diplomatic exercise rather than a strategic imperative requiring sustained, action-oriented leadership and engagement.