A platform to boost Spain-India relations through joint reflection, analysis and dialogue
What is the Spain-India Observatory?
The Spain-India Observatory (SIOb) is a platform to foster mutual knowledge and understanding that was triggered by the Spain-India Report 2020, an initiative promoted and led by the Spain-India Council Foundation (SICF). The SIOb offers an open space for analysis, dialogue and reflection on Indo-Spanish relations, as well as an updated repository of bilateral information and memory. It will promote mutual knowledge, identify opportunities for cooperation and offer practical resources so that the main bilateral stakeholders can strengthen the ties between the two countries.
Why is the SICF the suitable sponsor of the SIOb?
The Spain-India Council Foundation, with 15 years of bilateral impact, works alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain and the main government departments, institutions and companies involved in Spain-India relations. Due to its public-private nature devoted to promoting mutual knowledge and understanding, the SIFC becomes the appropriate entity to lead the SIOb. The establishment and development of the SIOb under the coordination of the SICF guarantees an institutional vision, a constructive perspective and a commitment to a permanent collaboration between institutions in a joint effort to improve the Indo-Spanish ties.
Why is an observatory on Spain-India relations needed?
The historical absence of key geographical, political and economic ties between Spain and India has made it difficult for the two countries to meet and get to know each other, generating a recurring deficit and an unfulfilled potential for bilateral exchanges. This lack of mutual knowledge and the scarce critical mass of bilateral stakeholders make it difficult for Spain-India relations to have a continuous and persistent momentum from the bilateral civil society. India is today one of the main global players, not only as a geostrategic and geoeconomic power, but also as a thriving and entrepreneurial market as well as a young and vibrant society. Given the current political understanding, the lack of strategic irritants and the sectoral complementarities and synergies between Spain and India, it is an auspicious moment to promote a constructive bilateral dialogue. The SIOb would generate the required knowledge and resources for fostering the Indo-Spanish ties, thus bringing the institutions and societies of both countries closer together.
What are its vision and mission?
The SIOb is created with the aim of becoming a space for encounter and dialogue involving together all institutions and individuals interested in Spain-India relations, a platform for the promotion of bilateral cooperation and a repository of information and bilateral memory. As an initiative for the advancement of Indo-Spanish relations, the SIOb seeks to generate knowledge maps that serve as analytical tools for public institutions and private entities, sectoral publications that foster mutual knowledge of the Spanish and Indian civil societies, and bilateral activities that promote joint dialogue and reflection.
What are the goals of its theme-based annual programme?
The SIOb will promote a permanent monitoring and analysis of Spain-India relations through the publication of sectoral reports and practical guides that will take over from the mapping and analysis carried out in the Spain-India Report 2020. As a platform that fosters bilateral dialogue and reflection, the SIOb will organize activities that facilitate exchanges between Indo-Spanish stakeholders in strategic areas defined in theme-based annual programme. The choice of a thematic agenda of activities will favour the continuity in targeted in-depth analysis, the generation of synergies between activities, the efficient use of resources and the generation of publications with strategic coherence.
How are the SIOb’s organization and team members?
The SIOb promotes a bilingual platform hosted initially by the Spain-India Council Foundation's website with the aim of pursuing its own virtual presence once its activity is consolidated. Likewise, its annual agenda is developed under the coordination of the SICF and seeks synergies with the Foundation's own activity, maximising the use of resources, its scope and its impact. In addition to the organisational support of the SICF, the SIOb has an analyst, Mikel Herrera Pilar.
