European envoys elevate Russia query amid deepening India-EU ties

India has to “sq.” its strategic partnership with Russia with its want to deepen ties with the European Union (EU), European envoys stated in New Delhi on Wednesday (September 24, 2025), questioning India’s participation within the current “Zapad” army workouts and Russian oil purchases and calling for “sensitivity” to European considerations over the battle in Ukraine.

In a keynote deal with, the European Union’s Ambassador to India Herve Delphin hailed enhancements in India-EU ties, together with commerce, expertise transfers and the strategic partnership, however referred to as the “Russia query” a problem on which the 2 sides weren’t aligned. Other EU-member diplomats from Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Italy and the Czech Republic additionally raised considerations that the rising EU-India relationship could possibly be affected by India’s engagement with Russia.

“We should be clear-eyed about these points on which we aren’t aligned,” Mr. Delphin stated, on the launch of an version of a publication “India’s World”, co-hosted by German think-tank Heinrich Boll Foundation, centered on the India-EU relationship, attended by a variety of Delhi-based suppose tanks, lecturers and students. “Let’s be clear: there’s a Russia query, particularly linked to its conflict of aggression towards Ukraine and its hostile perspective in direction of as seen in previous weeks and days and the violation of European airspace by Russian drones,” he added, citing discussions in European capitals over India’s buy of Russian oil, and the participation of an Indian army contingent within the Russia-Belarus Zapad-2025 train from September 12 to 16.

“India has pronounced itself for peace. Russia is a strategic associate for India. And India desires to deepen its ties with the EU. This would require additional consideration in Delhi on methods to sq. these phrases,” Mr. Delphin stated.

The timing of the Zapad train was awkward for EU leaders in Brussels, as commerce and agricultural negotiators and a delegation from EU’s Political and Security Committee (PSC) had been in Delhi on the time. Releasing the brand new “EU-India Strategy” days later, EU Foreign Policy chief Kaja Kallas stated she had taken up the difficulty with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, including that she stated that if India needed “nearer ties with us, then why take part in workouts which might be existential threats to us (the EU)?”

MEA rejected criticism

Rejecting the criticism, the Ministry of External Affairs had identified that whereas India joined the 2 plus-nation, 100,000 troops-strong train, NATO international locations, together with the U.S., Turkiye, and Hungary, which is an EU member, had participated as observers in Zapad-2025. It had additionally identified that many European international locations continued to purchase Russian power.

“I believe when [India and EU] need to develop nearer, [India would] have to know that that is one thing that bothers [the EU] and considerations us huge time,” stated German Ambassador Philipp Ackerman, as a part of a panel dialogue that adopted, entitled “Cultivating Europe: Navigating India–EU Strategic Ties”, the place he accused Russia of “unparalleled provocations” in sending fighter jet sorties by way of Estonian airspace and drones into Poland, and probably Denmark.

In his summation, Mr. Delphin, the EU Ambassador, additionally stated that “strategic convergence” between Delhi and Brussels has “by no means been better”, and hoped that the bilateral Free Trade Agreement can be performed by the tip of 2025, and the EU-India Strategic Roadmap can be launched on the EU-India summit in early 2026 in Delhi.

“The thirteenth spherical (of FTA talks) earlier in September was a little bit of a missed alternative to make some breakthrough. The EU was and continues to be able to conclude on a significant package deal. We sit up for India participating in earnest and shifting, just like the EU has proven readiness to do, in direction of a mutually useful deal,” Mr. Delphin added, citing excessive bilateral commerce ($140 billion in commerce in items in 2024) and as democracies selling “human values”, cooperative on world rules-based order, with “largely converging” pursuits within the Indo-Pacific.