As India looks to bolster ties with Greece as part of Europe push, a Chinese wall stands in the way

While India & Greece have ramped up ties in past year, China has been far more active in the Mediterranean country for almost two decades—on political, economic & cultural levels.

Illustration: Shruti Naithani | ThePrint

New Delhi: India has been looking at expanding its relations with Greece, a country that plays into New Delhi’s overall push in Europe with its shipping, maritime and economic pathways.

The past year has seen a number of high-level visits between Indian and Greek leaders. However, for New Delhi, its engagement with the Mediterranean country faces a great wall: China, which has been active in Greece for almost two decades at three different levels—political, economic and cultural—where India will have to play catch-up.

“China has the economic power, construction power and exporting power that India lacks. Moreover, its economic risk-taking is much higher than India’s. It (China) stepped into Greece at the height of its financial crisis (in 2008-2009) and has been investing heavily wherever needed in the country,” Dilip Sinha, a former Indian ambassador to Greece, told ThePrint.

Last year, India and Greece elevated their ties to a “strategic partnership” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country in August. In February this year, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, led a delegation to India—a flurry of high-level diplomacy that indicates the seriousness with which both governments are pushing the relationship forward.

However, Greece, a country of around 10 million people, a shipping giant and considered the fountainhead of Europe both in culture and geography, has become an important hub for Beijing’s exports to the continent in recent years.

“China has invested heavily in Greece and took advantage of the debt crisis to acquire key assets. China–owned COSCO (Shipping) currently owns a two-thirds majority stake in the port of Piraeus and, truth be told, it did a great job in transforming it into a major trade hub,” Vasileios Syros, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies at the United Service Institution of India (USI), told ThePrint.

India’s long-term ambition of becoming an economic heavyweight is behind the government’s push for a variety of transport corridors in the past few months, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) which would see Greece play a key role in altering global trade routes from South Asia to Europe.

“At the political level, we are on excellent terms. Greece has problems with Turkey, we have problems with them as well. Greece has long supported India’s position on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, and New Delhi has supported Athens’ stance on Cyprus for decades,” said Sinha.

“However, in the Indian psyche, Greece is not seen with importance, despite the long history of ties between the two societies. China has seen its investment in Greece as both a political project and an economic hub, given its distance from Europe. For India, investment is done by private businesses based on their business interest,” he added.

China’s engagement with Greece

The Greek economy since the turn of the millennium has had almost a decade of contraction, especially for six consecutive years from 2008 till 2013. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis that began in the US cascaded into the Eurozone crisis in 2009, when a number of European countries including Greece were unable to repay or refinance their large government debt burdens.

Graphic: Shruti Naithani/ThePrint

Athens faced some of the harshest austerity measures in return for at least three internationally funded bailouts worth around $330 billion, which include spending commitments till at least 2060.

As the Greek economy began its contraction in 2008 (-0.3 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund), the government put out calls for private operators to step in to run the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki.

Sinha recalled that at the time, no Indian company stepped in to bid due to a lack of capacity. However, China’s COSCO Shipping stepped in and won the bids for both ports. While its deal for Thessaloniki fell through, it expanded its control over Piraeus.

As of October 2021, COSCO owns a 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA). Beijing has also invested in Greece’s electricity grids, starting in 2016.

From an economic standpoint, China’s entry into Greece gave it a foothold in one of the member countries of the European Union (EU). However, it has since expanded its diplomatic footprint to include both political and cultural avenues to maintain its presence.

“China has articulated a multi-pronged programme of public diplomacy in Greece, emphasising the historical depth and linkages between the Greek and Chinese civilisations,” Syros told ThePrint.

This multi-pronged programme of diplomacy saw the Mediterranean country become the first EU member to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2018.

The BRI is touted as the “project of the century” by Chinese President Xi Jinping and is part of his vision to alter international trade routes through the creation of ports, roads, and airports, placing China at the heart of international trade.

But in Greece, China has taken a step further in pushing cultural connections apart from economic linkages.

“There are a number of Confucius Institutes (aiming to promote the Chinese language overseas) associated with Greek universities, and China has consistently sponsored multifarious educational activities and exchanges. In addition, Greece is part of two of China’s flagship projects, namely the 17+1 initiative aimed at enhancing cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries, and the BRI,” said Syros.

“Incidentally, China hosted from 6 to 8 November a massive World Conference of Classics on the theme ‘Classical Civilisations and the Modern World’ and announced the opening of the Chinese School of Classical Studies in Athens, which will basically be the first of its kind established by an Asian nation,” he added.

The Chinese School of Classical Studies is meant to further tap into Greece’s cultural affinity for its own long history as the classical heart of Europe.

“The new school and China’s civilisational narrative around Greece is part of its long-term plan to build respect in Europe. Greece is not an economic superpower. So while there is an economic aspect to it, Beijing believes that a ‘civilisational connect’ will build its image in the country,” Jabin T. Jacob, associate professor at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, told ThePrint.

The civilisational connection, according to Jacob, is part of China’s attempt to create the impression that as an “ancient civilisation”, it is “still successful”, while other, similar civilisations are facing difficulties.

It has a domestic messaging component but abroad, it allows “China to play up small historical ties to aid in its public diplomacy”, added the professor.

India-Greece ties 

India’s ties with Greece pale in comparison with China’s all-encompassing effort to position itself as a partner of the Mediterranean country.

According to Sinha, China has a number of strengths to tap into for its public diplomacy, in comparison to India.

“In terms of public diplomacy, there is still a lot to be done. The Greek public is exposed to Indian cuisine and Bollywood movies, but there remains a genuine need to showcase the depth and variety of India’s civilisation and its affinities with Greek civilisation,” Syros told ThePrint.

At the moment, there are no strong India-Greece cultural institutions active in promoting the two cultures in either country.

Syros pointed out that creation of a chair under the auspices of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations at a Greek university could, for example, give a push at the academic and cultural level to improve ties.

“It seems paradoxical that although Greece produced one of the most illustrious figures of Indology, Varanasi-based Dimitrios Galanos (1760-1833), who translated a number of works from Sanskrit to Greek and bequeathed a substantial part of his property to the Principal Academy of Athens (later University of Athens), there is still no chair or programme in Greece dedicated to Indian studies,” he said.

If the IMEC is India’s gateway to economic engagement with Greece, then expanding cultural ties is a facet of building deeper connections between the two societies. India has succeeded in the past few years in promoting its civilisational links with Southeast Asia, and through that strengthened its relationship with a number of partners in the region.

“The quintessence of soft power is to influence others and render them more amenable to specific values and ideas. India, given its commitment to democratic principles and international law, is in an exceptionally privileged position to exercise public diplomacy in Greece, while capitalising upon the long-standing civilisational ties between the two nations,” said Syros.

This is an updated version of the article

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)