India increased its diplomatic importance in emerging dynamics of Indo-Pacific: European Parliament expert

"India has increased its diplomatic importance as a part of its strategy over the last decade, but apart from its own evolution, its importance increases as a result of the current geopolitical evolutions," Delivorias said while speaking on India's positioning in the Indo-Pacific theatre.

With specialisation in external policies (including India), Angelos, is a policy expert at European Parliamentary Research (EPRS), which provides comprehensive research and analytical support to the Members of the European Parliament.

He also elucidated the multifaceted factors contributing to India's rising prominence while navigating China's expanding assertiveness while highlighting the Belt and Road Initiative of China and the assertive posturing observed in the South China Sea.

He also said that against the backdrop of China's Belt and Road Initiative and increasing assertiveness in global affairs, India's rise holds profound implications for the European Union and the wider international community.

"What I mean by that is that since the announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative on behalf of China, since its more aggressive stance in the South China Sea, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we see that the Indo-Pacific as an area and this Southern Asia as a region grows in importance, both for us, the European Union, both for the West in general, and also for its regional partners," the European Parliament policy expert said in an interview by EPRS on the rise of 'India, why it matters, and what this means for the EU'.

He also highlighted the sustained growth of the Indian economy over the past decade while pointing out that India's GDP growth has exceeded that of China, a significant development indicating New Delhi's emergence as a formidable economic powerhouse in the global arena."India has surpassed the growth rates of China, and experts think that it will continue doing so, at least in the short term," remarked Delivorias, underlining India's unprecedented economic momentum.

With India's ambitious infrastructure projects and recent strides in space exploration, Delivorias highlighted the nation's comprehensive economic strategy.

"And apart from high GDP growth, it has done significant investments in national infrastructure projects to sustain that economic growth. It takes part in international infrastructure projects and last year we even see that it has a complete space program. It landed on the moon. So it has a comprehensive economic strategy in that respect," he added.

He also drew parallels between India and China's demographic pyramid noting that the former's is younger than that of the latter's, which will lead to New Delhi's GDP continued growth in the ensuing years.

"From the economic perspective, the fact that India is the largest population on the planet, but also its population is younger, if we see the demographic pyramid of India, we see that it's younger than China's, implies that it has more people in the labour market and it has less expenditures in the health sectors or for pensions, which means it can keep growing its GDP in the next few years," he added. (ANI)