Risks, Resilience, Response (3R): India-EU Cooperation on Russian and Chinese Disinformation and Propaganda

Executive Summary India and the European Union (EU), as two of the largest democratic entities, are particularly exposed to foreign manipulation and interference in the information domain. External developments such as Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and border clashes on the India-China border in 2017 have pushed the EU and India to pay more attention to foreign disinformation efforts and invest more in institutional, legal, and educational resilience to counter these challenges. As a consequence, while the EU regards Russia as a major source of disinformation, India focuses exclusively on Chinese activities. Despite a growing awareness of a new major threat in the information domain, there is a lack of common understanding between the EU and India about what constitutes “disinformation” and a limited dialogue and cooperation on this issue. This creates space for more EU-India information and intelligence-sharing, exchange of best practices, and discussions about the nature of disinformation and effective countermeasures at both the official and expert levels. This research project, implemented in 2023 by the Polish Institute of International Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation and funded by the European Union, aims at an examination and comparison of the approaches of the EU and India to disinformation from two key actors, Russia and China, in order to propose ideas for closer cooperation in this domain. The project team proposes a set of recommendations for the EU and India, including: Launching an EU-India special dialogue on disinformation within the EU-India Cyber Dialogue mechanism or the EU-India Trade and Technology Council; Inviting India to cooperate with the EU’s Rapid Alert System (RAS) on disinformation to allow for regular exchange of information on foreign influence operations; Strengthening the resilience of their respective societies to foreign information manipulation by supporting cooperation and dialogue on disinformation between European and Indian civil society, experts, academics, and journalists; Engaging in shaping global regulations on disinformation, also by drawing some lessons from the European Digital Services Act; The EU can establish a new special StratCom unit at the European External Action Service (EEAS) to better monitor disinformation threats in India and its region; Supporting the creation of a Centre for Excellence for Countering Disinformation and Hybrid Threats in New Delhi (like the CoE in Helsinki) or a special EU-India Disinfo Lab platform as an academic hub for research and collaboration between Indian and European experts; Extending the mandate of EUvsDisInfo to monitor disinformation threats to the EU coming from China; Supporting the Indian government in developing an official body for monitoring and countering disinformation, and in raising social awareness and resilience to disinformation; Preparing a public information campaign for the EU and India ahead of the spring 2024 election campaigns to raise awareness about disinformation and foreign interference in democratic processes and to boost the resilience of European and Indian societies. Supporting further research and analysis on Russian and Chinese disinformation operations in India Introduction In an increasingly competitive, unstable, and interconnected international setting, the use of disinformation and propaganda as a tool of foreign policy to influence domestic politics and foreign policy choices in other states has been on the rise. These threats are especially acute in democratic, open, and pluralistic societies like India and European Union Member States. As the parliaments of both India and the EU are conducting elections in 2024, the risk of foreign interference in this democratic process is an impending challenge; therefore, engaging this phenomenon to counter it is an urgent necessity for both entities. Yet, there is limited experience and literature on EU-India cooperation in this area. While expansion of the EU-India strategic partnership has attracted attention, there has been no comprehensive comparative study of the European and Indian understanding of the nature and approaches to disinformation threats.