Global Gateway

In the second session of our ongoing series on India–Europe relations, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi – India, in collaboration with the Council for Strategic and Defense Research (CSDR), invites you to a conversation on the relevance of the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative for regional connectivity in the Indo-Pacific and how it could be used to advance EU-India priorities in the region.

Launched in December 2021, the Global Gateway is the EU’s flagship connectivity strategy, aimed at financing sustainable, inclusive, and high-standard infrastructure to address critical global connectivity gaps. It is central to the EU’s approach to strengthening international partnerships, with a focus on sectors such as digital infrastructure, energy, maritime logistics, health, and education.

This session will explore the potential synergies between the Global Gateway, India’s Act East policy, and the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy. It will also examine how the initiative aligns with regional frameworks like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). While the Global Gateway was launched alongside the EU–India Connectivity Partnership, it has so far seen limited traction in New Delhi—raising important questions for policymakers and stakeholders alike.
 

Moderator

Ambassador Gaitri Issar Kumar
Former Indian Ambassador to the UK and the EU
Amb. Kumar retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 2022. Over her 30-year diplomatic career, she served in Indian missions in Paris, Kathmandu, Lisbon, and Geneva, and as India’s High Commissioner to the UK and Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Speakers

Prof. Dr. Giulia Tercovich
Deputy Director, Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS), and Assistant Professor in EU Foreign Policy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Prof. Dr. Giulia Tercovich specialises in EU foreign policy, political leadership, and crisis management with a focus on the Indo-Pacific. She holds a dual PhD from the University of Warwick and Université Libre de Bruxelles, and is the author of Assessing EU Leadership in Inter-regional Relations (Routledge, 2022). She teaches courses on EU external relations and comparative regionalism and is trained in active and innovative pedagogy.

Riya Sinha
Associate Fellow, Foreign Policy and Security Studies, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP)
Riya Sinha leads CSEP’s Sambandh Regional Connectivity Initiative and co-manages its Track 1.5 Policy Dialogue on regional connectivity and geoeconomics in South and Southeast Asia. Her work focuses on trade, logistics, border management, and regional infrastructure. She was a 2022 Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center and previously worked at the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF).

Discussant

Reinhard Bütikofer
Senior Adviser, European Policy Centre; Former Member of the European Parliament
Reinhard Bütikofer served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2024, focusing on foreign relations, international trade, and industrial policy. He has held leadership roles in the German and European Greens and currently serves as Senior Adviser at the European Policy Centre and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).