Europe versus Asia?

Is Europe beginning to ressurrect its Big Brother attitude towards the rest of the world?

BY noel g de soUZA

In 2009, India was given an unprecedented place of honour at the July 14 French national day. Indian troops from all its military wings marched at the head of the national parade, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the Guest of Honour. Reciprocally, the French President Mr Nicholas Sarkozy was the Honoured Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations a year later.

All the three former colonial powers in India were then paying India singular tributes. The British royals were prominent at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the Portuguese Prime Minister led a high-powered delegation to India. Portugal is participating in a variety of projects such as wine production and the computer company Wipro is setting up a branch in Portugal.

But those times now seem remote. Portugal has a new Prime Minister. Sarkozy, according to the polls, might lose the forthcoming Presidential election in France. Europe is a financial crisis and several issues divide India and Europe.

In January 2012, an Indian couple were charged initially with child abuse and neglect in Norway. Their children were taken away from them. The so-called abuse involved sleeping with the children and feeding them by hand! If that is the Norwegian norm then most of the world neglects its children.

are slated to be tried in Kerala. One would have expected that Italy would have been conciliatory. Instead, India was accused of violating Italian sovereignty as the incident had supposedly taken place in international waters and that the Italians cannot be prosecuted under Indian law. A magistrate in Kollam has rejected this argument and has instead ordered that the Kochi Port Trust bring the Enrica Lexie into Kochi harbour. The two Italian naval men have appealed to the Kerala High Court.

The Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is adamant that there will be no out-of-court settlement regarding the killing of two Indian fishermen as this involves a case of murder.

The emerging Europe versus Asia scenario is not limited to isolated incidents. The European Union has precipitately imposed a carbon tax on aeroplanes landing in Europe despite howls of protest from several quarters including the USA, Russia, China, India and Brazil. China has flatly refused to pay the tax. It has spoken about retaliatory measures such as levies on EU airlines and, more importantly, it has cancelled its order for Airbus aeroplanes.

Asia’s perception is that the European Union has regressed into a colonial style mode; Europe once considered itself the centre and the rest of the world at its periphery, to which it could dictate terms.

The issues invovled in the case may be much more complex, but the outrage in India is understandable.

As news of these hush-hush Norwegian secret proceedings came to light, noisy demonstrations were held in New Delhi in front of the Norwegian Embassy demanding the restoration of the children to their parents and to their nation. Norway has underestimated India’s anger. Some sort of compromise is being now worked out.

In February this year, two Kerala fishermen in wooden boats were fishing along the Kerala coast when two Italian naval officers, working as security men, on the Italian cruise ship Enrica Lexie opened fire killing the two fishermen. Initially the story was that the fishermen had fired first and that the Italians returned the fire. But then it was admitted that the fishermen had not been armed. Evidently, there had been a tragic mistake.

When the ship entered Kochi harbour the naval security officers were arrested. They

The USA considers retaliatory measures to be premature but others do not, as the European carbon emission rules were neither discussed nor agreements reached with foreign governments. Amongst the measures contemplated are complaining to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and ceasing negotiations with European carriers on new routes.

Chief Executive Louis Gallois from the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), maker of the Airbus aircraft, has had to deal with the shock decision by China to cancel Airbus deliveries. Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders is concerned that his successful company might have to pay the price for the European Union’s carbon tax. “What started out as a solution for the environment has become a source of potential trade conflict,” he says. India’s airlines have had more than 180 Airbus planes already delivered, besides 54 helicopters. Also, India’s INSAT satellites are being sent into orbit with Ariane launchers by EADS.

Asia’s perception is that the European Union has regressed into a colonial style mode; Europe once considered itself the centre and the rest of the world at its periphery, to which it could dictate terms. This attitude is untenable in the contemporary world. The sooner that this perception is rectified, the sooner will Europe’s own problems get resolved by cooperating with Asia.