Spain’s President Pedro Sánchez’s visit to India marked an important milestone in the India-Spain relations. Sánchez along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the final assembly line of the C295 military transport aircraft at Vadodara. This project is a joint venture between Indian company Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Spanish company Airbus Defence and Space. A total of 56 aircraft will be manufactured under the agreement between India and Spain. Out of these, 40 will be manufactured at the facility at Vadodara and 16 will be acquired from Spain in fly-away condition. The first of the 56 aircraft was delivered by Spain in 2023.
The Vadodara facility is expected to deliver the first aircraft by 2026. This will be a watershed moment for India’s defence sector as it would be the first instance where a private company will manufacture a military aircraft.
Through this project, India is getting an opportunity to strengthen its strategic ties with Spain, one of the most advanced countries in Europe in terms of defence technology.
India and Spain will mark 2026 as the Year of India and Spain in Culture, Tourism, and Artificial Intelligence. The New Delhi G20 Declaration of 2023 highlighted how India and Spain can play a key role in AI’s proper and positive implementation in various fields
Spain has a highly developed defence and aerospace industry. Spain is one of the top defence exporters in the world. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfer Database of 2023, Spain ranks ninth among the top weapon exporters in the world. Within Europe, Spain is the fifth largest defence exporter. Spain’s defence industry depends mostly on foreign sales as domestic demand for arms and defence equipment is low. More than 80 per cent of Spain’s defence sales are to foreign countries. India is Spain’s seventh largest recipient of defence equipment, with 2.4 per cent of the Spanish defence exports going to India.
The cooperation on manufacturing C295 military transport aircraft is a major boost to India-Spain relations. Despite establishing diplomatic relations almost 70 years ago in 1956, bilateral ties between the two countries have remained underdeveloped. However, defence cooperation has added an important dimension to the engagements between both countries. India and Spain could now look to expand their cooperation further in the strategic domain.
Major domain for cooperation
Following the bilateral talks between Prime Minister Modi and President Sánchez, the two sides issued a joint statement saying they will mark 2026 as the Year of India and Spain in Culture, Tourism, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Among these three areas, AI could become a major domain for India and Spain to cooperate. Earlier, the New Delhi G20 Declaration of 2023 highlighted how India and Spain can play a key role in AI’s proper and positive implementation in various fields.
Like India, Spain has also started focusing on AI in various defence applications recently. Spain’s National Security Strategy (NSS) 2021 defines approaches to AI as a power tool and as a facilitating tool. Acknowledging that China is set to dominate the AI technology sector worldwide, Spain’s NSS underscores the importance of the ethical use of AI and respect for human rights in designing, developing, deploying and using AI in applications like the Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). India, an advocate of the ethical use of AI even in the defence sector, could look forward to collaborating with Spain at the global level in the AI domain across various areas.
Spain welcomed India’s application to join the Ibero-American Conference as an Associate Observer. This is an important development because it will open a possibility of triangular cooperation among India, Spain and Latin America, a lesser-focused area in India’s foreign policy
Outreach to lesser-focused areas
The joint statement also mentioned that Spain welcomed India’s application to join the Ibero-American Conference as an Associate Observer. This is an important development from two perspectives. First, it will open a possibility of triangular cooperation among India, Spain and the Latin American countries. Secondly, Spain, through its historical, cultural and economic links with the Latin American countries could be a facilitator for India’s stronger engagements with the region. Latin America remains one of the less focused areas in India’s foreign policy. Greater rapport with Spain could lead to India’s increased outreach to Latin America.
Similarly, India and Spain could explore opportunities to engage together with North Africa. North Africa, which is a part of the traditional sphere of Spain’s foreign policy, again remains an under-focused region for India. Increasing interaction with Spain implies a greater presence for India in the Mediterranean Region which in turn is an opportunity to engage more with the North African countries. India’s strategic engagements in the past few years have been aimed at increasing outreach to lesser-focused areas. Africa has been one of the key areas of focus for India. The western shores of Africa have been of particular interest to India as these form part of the Indo-Pacific Region. However, India has also been taking steps to interact more with the Mediterranean Region. Strengthening ties with North Africa, possibly through some cooperation from Spain would enhance India’s footprint across the Indo-Pacific as well as the Mediterranean Region.
A worthy strategic partnership
Even as the C295 project is a shot in the arm for India-Spain relations, Spain has been gradually making its presence felt in India’s strategic landscape. Spanish defence company Indra is supplying its Lanza-N 3D radars to the Indian navy’s destroyer ships. Indra is also partnering with Indian company Centum Electronics to manufacture space surveillance radars for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Further, Indra is also selected by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to deploy a pioneering integrated system at India’s main airports like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Navi Mumbai and Mopa (Goa).
Stronger ties with Spain, a leading economic and strategic power in Europe, magnify India’s outreach in the region. In turn, greater engagements with India allow Spain to interact with the Indo-Pacific Region, the global economic and geopolitical epicentre
While India-Spain relations have remained underdeveloped until now, Sánchez’s visit to India coupled with the collaboration on manufacturing the C295 military transport aircraft has given a boost to the bilateral ties. Stronger ties with Spain, a leading economic and strategic power in Europe, give India a magnified outreach in Europe. In turn greater engagements with India allow Spain to interact with the Indo-Pacific Region, which is the global economic and geopolitical epicentre. From India’s perspective, Spain could be a worthy strategic partner that would not only allow India to diversify its defence acquisition but also allow accelerated development of domestic defence manufacturing capabilities.
–The writer is an Independent Political Analyst and Researcher based in Vadodara. Follow him on Twitter: @NiranjanMarjani. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
