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The relations between India and Sweden go back a long way. It was in 1731 that the Swedish East India Company was formed. Referred to as Sweden’s most successful company of all time, it was by no means the first. That relationship has continued to this day.
There have been times when the ties between the two countries were indeed strong. There were frequent contacts during the Olof Palme-Indira Gandhi years when Sweden lent more than moral support to the non-alignment movement. In between came the Bofors years and a prolonged period of strain in the strong link. Today, however, the relationship is on an even keel. Both nations have changed their domestic and foreign policies. Even so, there is a lot in common: mixed economies, a vision for the future, family-run businesses, democracy and much more.
That was perhaps, the reason why Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson’s visit to India in the beginning of this year – incidentally the first by a Swedish Head of Government in 17 years – evoked so much interest. Why the two countries remained aloof from each other all these years is a mystery but now Swedish foreign policy experts believe that the ‘mistake’ should be corrected. The Swedes feel that it is time for a renewal of the special relationship the two countries enjoyed. The focus would be on global issues, trade, business and culture. The growing Indian middle-class has provoked a lot of interest in Sweden.
The focus of Prime Minister Persson’s visit was quite clear: Sweden was intent on discovering the new and dynamic India. He specifically mentioned three emerging powers with which Sweden was keen to intensify its relations: India, Brazil and South Africa. It is no wonder then that Sweden’s new Ambassador to India, the elegant H E Mrs. Inga Eriksson Fogh’s work is clearly cut out. She agreed that, “we have very good relations with India. Sweden was, in fact, one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with India soon after independence. The three countries that the Swedish government highlighted — in its declaration to the Swedish parliament last year, Brazil, South Africa and India – was because these nations are themselves making concerted efforts to be major players in the global arena through cooperation. We share a lot of common values with all these countries,” she emphasised.
Reflecting the sentiments of the Swedish government, Mrs Fogh said that India had gone through “a very impressive election and the rest of the world was indeed very impressed on how it had been done”. The outstanding democratic process of elections in India touched Sweden because “we share the principles of democracy based on the rights of individuals”.
More than anything else, the new Ambassador believes that “India was also taking steps to be a more active player in international economic relations. India has always been a big player in the international political sphere through the non-aligned movement with Sweden as an observer. There have been strong ties between the Indian government and the Swedish government on the political side although not in great depth or at all levels. This is what my Prime Minister talked about when he was here; that we would work out details in all areas,” said Mrs Fogh. Three areas were specially focused on: the environment, biotechnology and IT. Since both Sweden and India are very advanced in all three sectors in their own spheres though in different specialities, the “Prime Ministers of the two countries agreed that there was potential for cooperation where we can complement each other. My task,” said Mrs Fogh, “is to make this a reality and ensure that the announcements made do not remain mere declarations of political will.”
Having made that declaration of intent, would it be easy for the two countries to be partners? At first glance, Sweden and India appear rather unequal. India’s population is much larger than Sweden’s. But not very long ago the two countries had industrial sectors of an equal size. This, along with the fact that Sweden specializes in some of the most promising sectors of the fast emerging Indian markets could make for a rather balanced relationship and fruitful cooperation.
There are also similarities of outlook on economic policy and strategies. The public sector, for example, is in a strong position in both countries with business leaders quite adept in the cooperation between private and public industries. Another factor conducive to cooperation is concerned with environmental and WTO issues where there is a fair degree of agreement.
It must be remembered that Sweden has marked its presence in the business sector in India since 1903 when Ericsson supplied manual switchboards. Today there are over 100 Indo-Swedish joint ventures from engineering to pharmaceuticals but as Ambassador Fogh says, it is nothing that cannot be bettered. This initiative for new business is part of the ambitious programme of the Swedish Government’s New Asia Strategy, which is to bring about increased trade and investment in South Asia, especially in India, an emergent giant in the world economy.
Major Swedish companies such as ABB, Ericsson, SAAB, Skanska and Volvo, have a substantial presence in India, but there is a vast potential for increased business. India with a stable annual economic growth – in fact, it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today – offers excellent business opportunities in industry and services. Said Mrs Fogh, “We are in the process of initiating a follow-up of the visit of Mr Leif Pagrotsky, our Minister of Industry and Commerce, who was here last year. The idea is to bring people from the Swedish industry, especially from medium and small industries because it is these kinds of companies that need a little assistance when they enter a new market especially in another part of the world where things might not be so familiar.”
A programme is ongoing in Bangalore to further exchange in business, research, and culture with special emphasis on IT and biotechnology. The Government is also strengthening institutions (Swedefund and ‘Invest in Sweden Agency’), which will facilitate expansion of trade and investment. India’s exports to Sweden are still dominated by traditional goods like textiles and leather products but the preconceived notions have to be changed. The Ambassador added that the import figures from Sweden to India in 2003 were impressive. “India,” she maintained, “is our fourth Largest export destination in Asia. We exported SK 7.1 million worth in 2003 while our imports from India was worth SK 2.2 million. We are trying to increase imports and more work has to be done in this field.” However, she cautioned that the statistics were probably not quite exact “since we could be importing more. We have these giant Swedish companies that buy a lot from India like IKEA the furniture chain and the clothing chain H & M. These are buying a lot of products from India and sending it to third countries which was not reflected in the figures.”
However, in order to really promote India-Sweden business exchange, it is important that business leaders and politicians engage in direct and focussed networking of strategic interest. One such initiative is the one started by the Sweden-India Business Council. The recently started Swedish South Asia Studies Network – SASNET – is a partner in the project. The main aim is to stimulate partnership in research and higher education. The belief is that with increased academic exchange, competence in business and technology as well as intercultural understanding will be enhanced. SASNET connects more than 70 different Swedish research environments and their affiliates all over India. Amongst these there are several departments with advanced research in biotechnology, medicine, water management, etc., which could provide creative input into industrial and service oriented business ventures.
Increased business also means increased need of basic knowledge of the Indian and Swedish political and economic context. SASNET hopes to help promote the development of such knowledge through research, educational courses, seminars, and workshops.
Major Nordic universities are now setting up a Nordic Centre in India, which will, like SASNET, further the exchange of researchers and students between India and the Nordic countries. Even before SASNET or the Nordic Centre, cooperation between academic institutions in the two countries had been going on. The Ambassador spoke at length on the kind of initiatives taken by institutions like the IITs in India and KTH in Stockholm and even pointed out that the Swedish Government “was very happy that this is happening without us (the government) telling them what to do”.
Other than the cooperation in the academic and industrial spheres, India has also been one of the main recipients of overseas Swedish developmental aid, usually among the top three. Though it is now declining, Swedish aid has done immeasurable good. The development aid has facilitated and spawned valuable social and infrastructure projects like the Uri hydropower project in Kashmir.
For the moment, however, Sweden is interested in achieving the Millennium Development Goals — which has been agreed on by countries of the world – of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015. In 2003, the Indian government made changes in the country-to-country cooperation with smaller donors, including Sweden. This has not really affected the functioning of SIDA (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency). Mrs. Fogh said that even before the decision came from the Indian government, “we had shifted our channelling of funds. We did not have any direct bilateral cooperation between government to government,” said Mrs. Fogh. All Swedish development assistance in the last two years, therefore, have been channelled either through civil society in India or through multilateral channels like the UN or the World Bank.
However, the Swedish government was presently in “the process of looking at how we can be more efficient in how we channel our development funds to India and we are looking forward to talking to the new government about this. We are very active on the global arena to make sure that the Millennium Development goals are not just big words. We want the decisions to become reality. Like India we are great believers in multilateral cooperation in the UN system and we want to be credible. We do not wish to say something and not do anything about it,” said Mrs. Fogh.
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