Has India’s rediscovery of Europe come a little too late? Having long neglected the strategic value of the old continent, Delhi has stepped up its outreach to Europe in recent years. But questions remain: is Europe now too weak, too vulnerable to bullying by the United States, Russia, and China? Can it still offer India a consequential strategic partnership?
Adding insult to injury, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideologues have intervened brazenly in Europe’s domestic politics. The U.S. State Department—once fond of lecturing non-Western nations on human rights—has turned its gaze on European democracies, raising alarms about restrictions on free speech. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has publicly scolded Europe for abandoning “classical Western values”
This summer has done little to inspire confidence. In June, the NATO summit at The Hague hastily pledged to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP—mainly to placate U.S. President Donald Trump. In July, at Trump’s Scottish resort at Turnberry, Europe meekly conceded to his demands on trade. In August, Europe was absent from the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska that sought to end the Ukraine war; it was left to plead quietly with Washington afterwards for better terms for Kyiv. Together, these episodes amount to what some now call a “Europe’s summer of humiliation.”
Adding insult to injury, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideologues have intervened brazenly in Europe’s domestic politics. The U.S. State Department—once fond of lecturing non-Western nations on human rights—has turned its gaze on European democracies, including Britain and Germany, raising alarms about restrictions on free speech. This is no accident. It is the external projection of Trump’s domestic culture wars. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has publicly scolded Europe for abandoning “classical Western values.” Trump’s war against the “woke” at home is now being exported to the liberal bastions of Europe. In a deeply polarised continent, there is no shortage of right-wing parties willing to align with America’s new right to “Make Europe Great Again.”
Some now fear that Europe has been reduced to “vassal” status under the United States. Gilles Gressani, director of the Paris-based think tank Le Grand Continent, argued in the Financial Times that the gap between Trump’s radical agenda and Europe’s weak response amounts to a “vassalisation heureuse”—a kind of willing submission.
Gressani warns that the White House’s objective is not merely to influence the Western order but to reshape it into a vast geopolitical space where no genuine sovereignty exists outside Washington’s orbit. If fully realised, he argues, this would resemble a digital-age Warsaw Pact: states would formally retain independence but, in practice, be forced to submit. The irony is sharp. Once upon a time, European powers bestrode the globe, imposing “unequal treaties” on weaker nations. Today, Europe itself seems subject to unequal arrangements—imposed not by adversaries, but by its closest ally and supposed leader of the West, the United States. It is tempting to read the summer of 2025 as the beginning of the end of Europe’s greatness. But such a conclusion is premature.
For India, it is unwise to underestimate Europe’s resilience. The continent still has a population of 600 million and an economy of nearly $19 trillion—on par with China (but behind the U.S. at $30 trillion). Europe’s rich scientific, technological, and industrial base remains intact. The European Union’s plans to increase defence spending, deepen integration, and accelerate investment in innovation will take time, but they will bear fruit.
That is why India must intensify its political investment in Europe—not because Europe is weak, but because America’s relative power is growing and Washington is exercising it ruthlessly, even against close allies. That is the central message of Trump’s second term. Like Europe, India too finds itself at the receiving end.
In the past, Delhi often looked to Russia and China as partners in constructing a “multipolar world.” But in Trump’s world, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping appear better placed to cut bilateral deals with Washington than India’s Narendra Modi. Europe, by contrast, may be India’s most valuable partner in ensuring a fair place in the emerging global order.