From strategic autonomy to strategic partnership: EU–India relations in health diplomacy
| Published date | 01 November 2024 |
| Author | Sanjay Pattanshetty,Aniruddha Inamdar,Priya Vijaykumar Poojary,Ilona Kickbusch,Helmut Brand |
| Date | 01 November 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13459 |
Global Policy. 2024;15:901–914.
|
901
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gpol
STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF
EU–INDIA RELATIONS IN HEALTH
DIPLOMACY
COVID- 19 has been a wake- up call for all states and
institutions to prioritise health as a national and global
security concern. The pand emic tested the ability of
countries to act independently in a glo bal health crisis.
The immediate response by most countries was to close
borders and restrict the supply of es sential raw materials
of health to protect their population and interests. This
lack of health security and resilient hea lth systems
that are prepared for pandemics became a cause for
concern and instilled the need for dis cussion on the
strategic autonomy of health. However, given the nature
of public health concerns that are not confine d to national
borders, there is a need for collective acti on by actors
and sectors. Diplomatic relations and partnerships
between global players are crucial in tacklin g public
health concerns, such as supplying health professionals,
managing the supply chain, or other critic al raw
materials, while working collaboratively in transnational
regulatory frameworks and research networks. This
interdependence necessitates global actors to balance
seeking autonomy and building partnerships on health.
In this context, this paper focuses on how the European
Union (EU) and India navigate strategic autonomy and
strategic partnership in health by examining the health
cooperation initiatives in the EU–India Summits.
The need for health security and dipl omacy was
expressed during the European Commission (EC)
President's State of the Union Address 2020, which em -
phasised forming a European Health Union. This has
led to global health being recognise d as an “essential
RESEARCH ARTICLE
From strategic autonomy to strategic partnership:
EU–India relations in health diplomacy
SanjayPattanshetty1,2 | AniruddhaInamdar1 | Priya VijaykumarPoojary3 |
IlonaKickbusch4 | HelmutBrand2,5
Received: 2 Febru ary 2024
|
Revised: 26 Septem ber 2024
|
Accepted: 30 Se ptember 2024
DO I: 10 .1111/17 58- 589 9.13 459
1Axel Pries Instit ute of Public Health and
Biomedica l Sciences, NIMS Univer sity,
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
2Department of International Health, Care
and Public Heal th Research Institute –
CAPHRI, Faculty of He alth Medicine and
Life Sciences , Maastricht Univers ity,
Maastricht, The Netherlands
3Manipal Centre f or European Studies,
Manipal Acade my of Higher Education
(MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, India
4Global Health C entre, Geneva Graduate
Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
5Prasanna Scho ol of Public Health,
Manipal Acade my of Higher Education
(MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, India
Correspondence
Sanjay Pattansh etty, Axel Pries Institute
of Public Health a nd Biomedical Scie nces,
NIMS University, Jaipur, Rajasthan
302131, India.
Email: sanjay.pattanshetty@
nimsuniversity.org
Abstract
The study examines the potential of the European Union (EU)–India co opera-
tion in health diplomacy and the exchange of less ons learned by both actors.
Particularly, the growing discourse on achieving strategic autonomy in healt h has
not been adequately analysed in the existing literature, which is surprisi ng given
that both actors share this interest. This paper begins by contextualising the dis-
course of strategic autonomy in the European and Indian politic al discourse with
a specific focus on achieving autonomy in health an d subsequently argues for a
transition from strategic autonomy to a strategic partner ship by recognising the
strategic interdependencies. A qualitative co ntent analysis was used to analyse
all 16 EU–India summits to locate health diplomacy in th eir relations and present
recommendations for future cooperation. Th e shift from strategic autonomy to
strategic partnership also necessitates a strategic vision towards shaping the
EU–India cooperation. With t he upcoming EU–India Summit in 2025, research
and development, strengthening supply chains, harmonisation of regulations,
and financing of healthcare are key areas that can be deliberated on to enhanc e
the cooperation between the two g lobal actors in healthcare.
This is an open ac cess article under t he terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which perm its use and distributi on in
any medium, provi ded the original work is p roperly cited, the use i s non-commercial a nd no modifications o r adaptations are made.
© 2024 The Author(s). Global Policy published by D urham University and Jo hn Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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