Europe should now look for an alternative to China: Experts opine during webinar

During a webinar interaction, some experts even opined that India being a diplomatic nation provides a conducive atmosphere for the European investors.

Economic Development Foundation, Istanbul (IKV), a non-governmental research organisation specialised on the EU and Turkey-EU relations hosted the webinar.

Thierry Mariani, a Member of the European Parliament and Former Minister of State for Transport of France told ANI that the countries were relying too much on China and they needed to look for other markets.

He told the news agency, "For me, this new Silk Road is just one opportunity but it cannot be said that it is the only opportunity. If we want to have peace and good development then we should have initiatives with other countries. China is an important country but India is also an important country and would become a more and more important country."

"We know that India is well advanced in this subject and this includes the peace pipeline project. We should link Iran, Pakistan and India or TAPI which links Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India," added the French MEP. 

"The Indian government is very active to develop an alternative to the Silk Road. In November 2017, New Delhi launched Asia-Africa growth Corridor with Japan which aims to strengthen the trade between two continents. India has indeed understood the concern of the Sub-Africa and the Asian states. In this project, Europe could take an important place," Mariani said referring to India.

Former Deputy Foreign Minister, Hungary, Istvan Szent Ivanyi said that Europe should look for an opportunity in India.

"India has huge potential -- both political and economic. It is an important and reliable partner and it can be an alternative to China. I do not say cut all ties and bonds as that would be unrealistic but I think we have yielded something and have to look for the alternatives. India seems to be very good alternative in the future and I think we can use this opportunity,"   Istvan Szent Ivanyi told ANI.

Secretary-General of Economic Development Foundation, Cigdem NAS said that China and the European Union were inherently very different from each other.

"Can we say that there is a contrast between the EU's government structure and the Chinese model of governance? Of course, there is a major difference. One is a more democratic model based on human rights while on the other side we are a more authoritarian, more closed sort of regime," Cigdem NAS was quoted as saying by ANI.