India only Asian country invited at key Europe meet | Economic Times

India’s profile is steadily increasing across Europe where several countries now see New Delhi as a reliable and dependable advocate of rules-based international order that can help counterbalance China’s influence. India is the only Asian country and one of three non-European countries along with the USA and Kenya to be invited for the 2021 Bled Strategic Forum (BSF), an annual international conference held in Slovenia, that has become a key forum of European foreign ministers. Slovenia is the current European Union chair.Foreign minister S Jaishankar will address the three-day event starting on Tuesday. He will seek to build partnerships with Europe for a stable and rules-based Indo-Pacific region, people aware of the matter said. Resilient supply chains in the post-Covid world order has been among New Delhi’s key goal.Several European countries are seeking wider Indian presence in the continent to balance China. It may be recalled that the EU has put trade and investment pact with China on hold while seeking to revive a proposed trade pact with India at the summit held earlier this year. This year’s edition of the forum will seek to bridge East-West divide within Europe and EU.