Commentary
Democratic Security
Enlargement Is Back, But Membership Is No Longer the Only Prize
16 June 2026
Indian Prime Minister’s two-day trip to Bratislava is a sign of Europe’s deeper engagement with India. V4 countries can use their legacy and facilitate decoupling from China.
Narendra Modi set out on a two-day visit to Slovakia – a Visegrad Four (V4) country – from 15 to 16 June. Yet the trip should be seen in the context of broader engagement between India and Europe.
The recent conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement and other partnerships that India has with European countries demonstrate the mutual resolve to build on shared stability in a largely uncertain and transactional world. Modi’s visit to Slovakia now and the August 2024 visit to Warsaw, Poland, are the right path to follow.
Europe’s next-gen growth engine – with diverse underpinnings
The scale of the V4 countries’ convergence becomes legible when it is measured against the EU’s other periphery rather than against its wealthy core. Between 2005 and 2024, Poland recorded an average annual growth of around 3.7 per cent and Slovakia 3.0 per cent, placing both among the fastest-growing economies in the Union, while over the same two decades the Greek economy contracted by roughly 0.3 per cent a year, despite enjoying the same access to the single market and to the structural funds that financed so much of the V4’s growth.
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