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India’s newly concluded trade agreement with the European Union is being celebrated, understandably, as a diplomatic and economic success. By cutting tariffs on billions of euros’ worth of goods, the deal strengthens Europe’s efforts to diversify supply chains away from China while signalling India’s readiness to play a larger role in shaping the global trading system.

But beyond the immediate gains for Brussels and New Delhi, the agreement carries wider implications for South Asia, and particularly for Pakistan. It highlights a growing divergence within the region between countries that are adapting to a more fragmented global economy and those that remain trapped in older models of trade dependence and policy hesitation.

India has long approached free trade agreements cautiously, wary that domestic producers would be overwhelmed by imports. Its withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in 2019 reflected that anxiety. The European deal suggests a shift in confidence. New Delhi now appears persuaded that its manufacturing base, services exports, and regulatory institutions are sufficiently robust to compete, and that strategic alignment with advanced economies matters more than protecting inefficient sectors.

Without deliberate coordination, India’s growing global integration is likely to bypass its neighbors rather than lift them.

- Javed Hassan

That confidence is not accidental. It has........

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