India-Greece/EU Strategic Relations in the Aftermath of the Pahalgam Terror Attack

Interview 

1) Prof Syros, over the last two to three years, India-Greece bilateral relations seem to have been on the upswing. Why has Greece become such an important vector in India’s foreign policy?

Over the past two to three years, Greece and India seem to be coming out of a lethargy of ca. 20 centuries and are starting to rediscover each other. Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Athens in August 2023, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to India in February 2024, and a series of subsequent high-profile visits and meetings are reflective of both nations’ commitment to upgrade bilateral relations in various domains, notably trade and defense. These developments are the corollary of broader geopolitical reconfigurations and India’s rise as a great power in international affairs. Greece has evolved into such a crucial element in India’s foreign policy primarily because India is looking for gateways to European markets, and Greek ports can serve as suitable entry points for Indian exports. Greece can function as a reliable partner for India in the Western world, especially the EU and NATO. Additionally, Greece possesses one of the world’s largest merchant fleets, and its know-how in maritime trade could be a formidable asset in the Indian government’s plan to expand its fleet by ca. 1,000 new vessels over the next decade.

2)  Would you share your thoughts about the civilizational ties between the two countries?

Greece and India have forged close civilizational linkages with each other since ancient times. Having visited, lived, and worked in most European countries and India, at times I had the impression that Greece has much more in common with India as compared to several countries in Europe. That said, there is a genuine need to pool more resources in order to reinvigorate cultural connections between Greece and India. Greek perceptions of India are pretty stereotypical and simplistic: they largely revolve around yoga, Bollywood, masala chai, nan, chicken biryani, and Taj Mahal, but there is utter ignorance of other aspects of Indian culture, history, and geography. In people’s imagination, India remains a faraway, mysterious land, although it is geographically much closer than New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, in the same way as during the Cold War one had the feeling that Moscow lay further than, e.g. London, although the average aerial distance of both cities from Athens is almost the same. One needs to launch a concerted information campaign and foster deeper mutual understanding and trust between the two nations. Remarkably, Greece represents an anomaly given that, unlike most European countries, there has never been a single university post in the whole country fully devoted to the study of India. And this despite the fact that Dimitrios Galanos, a pivotal figure in the evolution of Indology, hailed from Greece. Opening a Greek cultural center/institute in New Delhi named after Galanos or Megasthenes, Seleucus I Nicator’s envoy at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, would go a long way towards enlightening the Indian public about various facets of Greek culture. JNU’s Greek Chair could do a lot more in terms of promoting Greek language and culture and serve as a beacon for endeavors with a similar mandate across India. Organizing Greek-Indian academic conferences in Greece or India once or twice a year is a worthwhile but ultimately spasmodic and effete initiative that involves a tiny fraction of the population and is doomed to have limited traction, unless it is integrally embedded in a comprehensive agenda for educational exchanges.

3)  Do you think a narrow focus on civilizational ties is sufficient for a robust relationship? What are the prospects for strengthening strategic ties between the two countries? Do you envisage the possibility of elevating this relationship to a “strategic partnership”?

This is the chicken-or-egg question: do governments choose to capitalize on civilizational bonds first before proceeding to a strategic partnership; or do they intensify cooperation in various fields, such as trade and defense, and leverage their shared cultural heritage a posteriori to lend justification to their policies and decisions? There is an important civilizational substratum in the Indo-Greek case that can help sustain and deepen the nascent strategic partnership that formally exists between New Delhi and Athens since 2023. And yet, for all the proclamations and high-flown rhetoric of both the Indian and Greek leadership about a new and glorious chapter in Greece-India ties, there are numerous challenges associated with the implementation of the strategic cooperation between the two nations. Given China’s omnipresence in Greece and its control of the Port of Piraeus, India will have to deftly navigate the European landscape. One of the questions lingering in the minds of the planners of Track II diplomacy and people-to-people dialogue is the tremendous disproportion between the size of the Indian community in Greece (ca. 35,000 Indian citizens in a country with a population of 10 million people) and only a handful of Greeks in the world’s most populous nation. Paradoxically, there is a lot of talk about connectivity, but there are still no direct flights between Athens and Delhi or any other major Indian air destination, and most of the travelers transit via Istanbul or the Gulf.

4) What are the possibilities of a close counterterrorism and intelligence partnership between India and Greece?

Intelligence sharing is a key component of any strategic partnership. Greece and India face to a large extent similar challenges, notably maritime security and asymmetric threats at their borders. The meeting between the Indian National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, and his Greek counterpart, Athanasios Dokos, in February 2024, and the visit of the DG of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. DS Rana, to Greece in December 2024 mark significant milestones for future collaboration in such sensitive areas as cybersecurity, connectivity, defense manufacturing, shipping, and space. The existence of a more concrete and enduring framework in the form of a hub or a standing observatory for the exchange of information would be a salutary step towards that direction. Greece stands to benefit immensely from tapping into India’s rich experience in crisis management and disaster response and exploring synergies with, e.g., the National Disaster Management Authority. Finally, the Pahalgam terror attack has foregrounded once again the need to reassess Pakistan’s activities in Greece and Europe in general as well as the nefarious effects of illegal immigration/infiltration, and to identify loopholes and flaws in the EU’s Common European Asylum System, European Border Surveillance System, and Schengen visa regime. An individual of Pakistani descent, who was apprehended in connection with the Paris terrorist attack in 2016, had entered the EU through the Greek island of Leros. A powerful precedent when it comes to counterterrorism that highlights the need for multilateral coordination between Greece, India, Israel, and Cyprus is the success of the Greek and Israeli security services in March 2023 at foiling a terror attack on Jewish targets in Athens that involved two Pakistani nationals. Relatedly, in June 2023, Cypriot authorities, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence agencies, neutralized a hit squad, which was planning to attack Israelis in Cyprus, and gathered evidence that pointed to Pakistan’s collusion with the terror cell.

5) How can Athens and New Delhi strengthen and enhance the bilateral ties in the economic and trade domain, investment, and geo-economic connectivity projects? Please discuss briefly the feasibility of IMEC.

Your question is related to one of the topics we touched upon earlier: whether an emphasis on civilizational linkages can provide a sufficient foundation for a solid and lasting partnership. Despite their common civilizational background and converging strategic aspirations, Greece-India trade ties remain rather anaemic, whereas bilateral trade between India and countries with different geopolitical priorities is very high. A first step towards boosting relations between the two nations in the economy and trade would be the creation of a forum that would offer an opportunity to explore possibilities and address potential challenges in a more consistent manner. Moreover, one could contemplate increasing the staff at the Greek Embassy in New Delhi, upgrading its commercial section, and utilizing Greece’s new consulates in Mumbai and Bangalore, along with other agencies, as platforms for interaction among prospective investors from both Greece and India. Greece is not yet a formal signatory to IMEC but can play a vital role when it comes to the use of Greek ports and providing access to trade routes, particularly in southeastern and central Europe. One of the problems I see here is the dire condition of the Greek railway network, arguably one of the most obsolete in Europe. The frontal collision of two trains in the gorge of Tempi (central Greece) on 28 February 2023, the deadliest in Greek history, highlighted safety concerns due to the chronic lack of resources, outdated infrastructure, poor maintenance, and mismanagement. I am not optimistic about Greece’s ability to get its act together and modernize its railway system within the next 5-10 years, nor do I believe that any serious thought has been given thus far to how exactly Piraeus or alternative ports, like Kavala, Volos, and Alexandroupoli, could be properly utilised for the execution of India’s geoeconomic strategy.

6) Do you think India’s strategic ties with Russia will adversely affect the strengthening of India-Greece relationship?

Thanks to its long-standing strategic ties with Russia, India can be a valuable interlocutor in various areas concerning EU-Russia relations. There are currently important efforts underway to end the war in Ukraine, and India has the potential to become a major actor in this process. Since 2022, Greco-Russian relations have hit their nadir. That cannot detract from the fact that Greece and Russia do share strong historical and religious bonds. As such, I feel that once the dust settles, both nations will have to engage in a serious process of reconciliation and reflection on how to move forward. There is another dimension to the India-Greece partnership that underscores the broader need to rethink Greece’s role as an intermediary between Europe, on the one hand, and the Arab world, Iran, Russia, and other nations, on the other. Somehow, one gets the sense that Greece’s significance as a bridge between East and West has been dissipating. The India-Greece relationship is an excellent case study that can yield fresh insights into how Greece can harness its civilizational legacy to broaden its diplomatic bandwidth and have a more substantial contribution to global peace and security. 

Disclaimer: This interview is the author's individual scholastic contribution and does not necessarily reflect the organization's viewpoint.

Professor Vasileios Syros is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies at the United Service Institution of India, and an Honorary Adjunct Fellow at the National Maritime Foundation. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and holds a concurrent appointment as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel (Switzerland). He is a former Greek Chair Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. His areas of specialty include the history of medieval and early modern political thought (Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions), cross-cultural leadership, and Indian strategic thought.