Europe Wants a Reliable Partner. India Needs to Step Up.

When the leaders of the European Union set out their new strategy to engage India in September, they hoped it would result in a few favorable headlines about the new partnership. And they did indeed read multiple India-related headlines in the next days — but about its participation in “strategic” military exercises with Russia and Belarus.

Brussels, which has been pushing for more concessions, must have felt like someone had set out to humiliate them. That wasn’t the intent, of course, and officials in New Delhi were surprised and puzzled by the anger in Europe.