Europe increasingly views India as a strategic partner, yet continues to engage Pakistan through a familiar crisis-management playbook it appears reluctant to abandon, according to a geopolitical analysis published in the Times of Israel. The report argues that the European Union's dual posture — emphasising security cooperation with New Delhi while reverting to the language of 'balance' and 'restraint' with Islamabad — is eroding the bloc's credibility on counterterrorism.

The Core Contradiction

Sergio Restelli, an Italian political advisor, author, and geopolitical expert, argues that the EU undermines its own moral stance on terrorism by drawing a parallel between the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ukraine in the joint statement issued after the 8th Pakistan-European Union Strategic Dialogue held in Islamabad. In doing so, critics argue, the EU overlooks Pakistan's alleged support for cross-border terrorism in pursuit of diplomatic optics.

Restelli wrote that the recent visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President Kaja Kallas to Islamabad risks reinforcing a damaging perception in New Delhi: that Europe seeks India's market access, geopolitical weight, and role in balancing China, but remains hesitant when it comes to addressing India's legitimate concerns on terrorism.

What the EU Wants From India

According to Restelli, Europe is simultaneously pursuing an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) — partly to offset potential losses from shifts in Washington — while instinctively reverting to the old Pakistan dossier whenever tensions on the subcontinent rise. This transactional approach, he argues, is strategically incoherent.

'Earlier this year, Kallas said the EU would proceed with a security and defence partnership with India, a significant step in Europe's Indo-Pacific posture. Yet on the subcontinent's most sensitive security question, the EU continues to behave as though India's counterterror concerns are merely one side of a bilateral quarrel. That is not strategic autonomy. It is strategic confusion. Europe is back again pacifying dictators like it once did. While verbally it tries to proclaim strategic autonomy, it panders to Asif Munir just because it must seem to have a seat at the Iran table,' Restelli stated.

The Kallas Visit: Legitimacy Without Cost

Restelli was pointed in his critique of the Kallas visit to Islamabad, arguing that the issue was not the engagement itself but the absence of visible accountability demands. 'A serious European message would have been clear: Pakistan cannot claim partnership with Europe while the infrastructure of extremism, denial and proxy violence remains a recurring feature of South Asian instability. Instead, the public choreography gave Pakistan what it most craves: legitimacy without cost,' he wrote.

This comes amid heightened tensions on the subcontinent following a series of cross-border incidents, making the EU's framing of the dialogue all the more consequential for regional security dynamics.

What a Credible EU Policy Would Look Like

Restelli outlined what he described as the correct sequencing for a serious European policy: 'condemn terrorism, demand accountability, call on Pakistan to dismantle terror networks, affirm India's right to protect its citizens within international law, and then urge de-escalation.' Without this structure, he warned, restraint risks becoming a burden borne primarily by the victim rather than a shared obligation.

Whether the EU recalibrates its South Asia posture in line with its stated values on counterterrorism will be a key test of its credibility as a strategic actor in the Indo-Pacific — and of the depth of its partnership with India.