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OPINION APRIL 23, 2021 | The Indian Eye 18

strongly in favour of a rules- sion in this regard. analysts as an attempt by China Ashok Sajjanhar is President,
based international order. It is disquieting that China to create fissures in the transat- Institute of Global Studies, and a
China has been trying to has been trying to sow dissen- lantic partnership. former Ambassador of India to
spread the false narrative that sions within the EU by promot- India and the EU, with 1.3 Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia.
its system has been eminently ing the 17+1 initiative, focusing billion and 450 million peo-
successful in dealing with the on the central and the eastern ple respectively, are the largest Views expressed are of the author
health and economic crises un- European countries. The con- democratic spaces in the world and do not necessarily reflect the
leashed by the pandemic while clusion of the Comprehensive and natural allies, who adhere to views of the Manohar Parrikar
democracies have failed misera- Agreement on Investment on and promote rule of law, within IDSA or of the Govt. of India.
bly at handling it. This is even as the last day of the German Pres- their own territories and in the This is the abridged version of
China has tried to hide details of idency on December 30, 2020 world. India and the EU stand the article which appeared first
the coronavirus outbreak when has sent confusing signals to the on the threshold of an oppor- in the Comment section of the
it first erupted in Wuhan in No- world about the EU’s interest tunity to ramp up their engage- website (www.idsa.in) of Mano-
vember 2019 and subsequently and commitment to push back ment to promote peace, security har Parrikar Institute for Defense
did not accept responsibility for against Chinese authoritarian and prosperity domestically, re- Studies and Analyses, New Delhi
its acts of commission and omis- policies. This is seen by several gionally and globally. on March 31, 2021

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