Saturday 12 / April / 2025
New Delhi: Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan Herve Delphin on Friday expressed faith in the position that India and the European Union hold in the current geopolitical landscape for "drawing the bridge" with the Global South and delivering on the expectation of the region.
While speaking during the 'State of the World' segment at the 9th Carnegie Global Technology Summit in the national capital, Delphin highlighted the interconnected dimensions shaping the current global affairs, noting that geopolitics is fuelled by four factors.
He outlined these factors as the evolving forms of capitalism, the strategic role of technology, social pressures, and the shifting security environment.
He described the ongoing competition between different economic models, including state capitalism, mercantilism, and the open liberal system and pointed to the shifting role of technology, stating that it has moved from being purely a tool of innovation and progress to becoming central to geopolitics and national security.
Delphin also emphasised the impact of social changes and security threats on the current global order.
"The EU and India are very well placed to work together to draw these bridges with the Global South, to help deliver and to make the links with the expectation of the Global South. We should not only look through the prism of competition," he said.
"Geopolitics is fuelled by a quadrant of factors. One, how the economics are being challenged by the different versions of capitalism: the mercantilist version, state capitalism as seen in a large geographical area to the east, and the traditional open liberal system in which we've been living. Second, how technology has moved from the sphere of innovation and progress used for economic and social needs to something that is clearly at the intersection of security and geopolitics. The social choices also, at the end of the day, are people to be served as they live in a world of anxieties and choices and the last is, of course, the security environment, where we see new wars and new forms of wars. These four quadrants and the way the four dimensions interact don't mean that there is a lot of confusion or uncertainty that is generated by this," he added.
Addressing the pace of change in global politics, Delphin noted that the "speed of change" has been exhausting for the system as it can't keep up.
He called for governments and institutions to adapt rapidly to avoid being overtaken by the pace of transformation, underlining the rising importance of trust in global geopolitics.
"I think that what comes out of this world - there are certain elements. One is really about speed. The speed of change is so absorbing that it is even exhausting systems because it cannot simply keep up and one has to recognise that you can have the best agency possible; you will be somehow overtaken.
The second is another T word, which is not Tech or Tariff but is Trust. I think this is what I would call a critical raw material of geopolitics that is now having a greater value than ever, and I think this is what is going to shape the dynamics of the world of the new world in which we are living," the Ambassador stated.
Notably, the ninth Global Technology Summit (GTS), co-hosted with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, is being held from April 10 to 12, 2025, in New Delhi, with public sessions on April 11 and 12.
This year's theme, Sambhavna - meaning "possibilities" - highlights the transformative potential of critical and emerging technologies to drive economic growth while shaping international relations, security frameworks, and global governance.
