This peer reviewed policy brief was developed based on consultations with experts from Indian and EU governments and civil society. It is part of the project, titled ‘China’s Digital Silk Road: Challenges and Opportunities for India and the EU’, run collaboratively by the Leiden Asia Centre (LAC), the Netherlands, and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), India. The project examines China’s expanding role in the global digital domain and its impact on Indian and EU strategic interests. A collaboratively produced background report centred on the Digital Silk Road’s strategic implications can be found here.

Abstract

China’s ambitious Digital Silk Road (DSR) poses challenges that go far beyond technological competition. The DSR should serve as a wakeup call to the ‘digital emergency’ that India and the EU seem to find themselves in. At stake for both actors are how global digital governance values are shaped, and Indian and EU positions in the global digital order. Merely addressing Chinese technology ingress domestically will not suffice. Notwithstanding ongoing India-EU digital cooperation, structural issues need to be more comprehensively addressed. The EU and India should pursue a holistic approach by 1) Outlining an overarching vision for their preferred architecture of the global digital order; 2) Working to better understand each other’s broader strategic context and prioritisation; 3) Arriving at definitional consensus on cyber values and norms; and 4) Working to become competitive global suppliers of digital products and services.


Read the full report, here.