Can Europe be India's Plan B?

India’s once-flourishing ties with Washington have soured in Trump’s second term, marked by punishing tariffs and penalties over Russian oil. This turbulence reinforces New Delhi’s instinct for “multi-alignment,” and the desire to hedge between great powers rather than bet on any single partner.

Against this backdrop, a new paper by the journalist and analyst James Crabtree argues that now is the time for Europe to shine and to make the case that it is India’s most promising alternative in a shifting global order.

The paper is called, “Pivot to Europe: India’s Back-Up Plan in Trump’s World,” and it has just been published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, where James is a distinguished visiting fellow.

James spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he served as the Mumbai bureau chief. He is the author of the much-celebrated book, The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, published in 2018. He is currently a columnist for Foreign Policy and hard at work on a second book on the United States in Asia.

James joins Milan on the show this week to discuss the turmoil in U.S.-India relations, the historical underperformance of Europe-India relations, the looming China challenge, and the factors which have made Europe a more “geopolitically serious” actor. Plus, the two discuss the nascent thaw in China-India ties and how Europe can avoid short-termism to forge stronger bonds with India over the long haul.

Episode notes:

1. James Crabtree, “Why India Should Not Walk Into the China-Russia Trap,” Foreign Policy, August 27, 2025.

2. “India and the Reordering of Transatlantic Relations (with Tara Varma),” Grand Tamasha, March 11, 2025.

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