Ireland and India have both long been invested in a multilateral rules-based global order. At a time when the rules of global engagement are being severely tested, there are core features of this comparatively uncomplicated relationship that make it a valuable link for India and Europe.
Dr. S. Jaishankar’s recent visit to the Republic of Ireland underscores the new lens through which the bilateral relationship is being viewed. It marked the first trip to Ireland by an Indian external affairs minister and the first high-level Indian political engagement with Irish counterparts since Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped off in Dublin, en route to the United States in 2015. Following a gap of 59 years (Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru travelled to Ireland in 1956), it was noted then that India and Ireland were among the fastest growing economies of Asia and Europe and stood to benefit from a closer relationship. At the time, the Indian community in Ireland was estimated at 26,000 and the value of bilateral trade, at 2.48 billion Euros. A decade later, and 75 years since official diplomatic relations were established, the community has grown to an estimated number that oscillates between 80,000 – 100,000 Indians and two-way trade, combining goods and services trade, was in the region of €16 billion/ in 2023.
Converging journeys
The relationship between India and Ireland is important in the history of imperialism and anti-colonial resistance. With huge populations under colonial rule and sections of society co-opted into the British empire, the shared collective experience of oppression, opportunity and freedom is a rich resource for scholars and diplomats to draw upon. The countries’ respective iconic leaders, Eamon de Valera and Jawaharlal Nehru, visited each other in the early years after India’s independence, in 1948 and 1949, 1956 respectively, fostering the extant feelings of solidarity and sympathy. Post-independence, both India and Ireland sought to influence their worlds through a foreign policy based on identity and values. Several principles articulated by Jawaharlal Nehru in the United Nations (UN) emphasising the importance of peaceful coexistence, non-alignment, decolonisation, and the rights of newly independent nations were also central to Irish foreign policy. Since those early days, through the Cold War and till today, both countries have been and remain ardent supporters of and contributors to UN peacekeeping operations.
