The Diplomat in Spain

Rubén Campos with the vice-chairman of Alternativas, Nicolás Sartorius./ Picture:TDS

Eduardo González. Madrid

The political change India is going through, with the rise to power of the nationalist prime minister Marendra Modi and his solid support to foreign investments, should be used by Spain to enter a country that, as regards infrastructures, “is not that it has everything left to do, but almost”.

Although from the political point of view, relations between Madrid and New Delhi keep a “low profile” that has been improving throughout the years, from an economic point of view, Spain is “fighting with the countries of its environment and with Asian countries so that our companies have a significant part in India’s growth”, Rubén Campos, expert on Southern Asia and the Asian South of the Club de Madrid, explained on Monday during an event organized by the Foundation Alternativas before the I Forum Spain-India, which will be celebrated on 3 and 4 December in Madrid.

For that, he specified, it is necessary that Spain asserts itself “in those things we are great at and Indians need”, such as infrastructures, management of urban services or sanitary products, as it already happened with the construction of the underground in Delhi, where Spanish companies participate.

In the field of political relations, Rubén Campos explained, Spain has a “smaller room for manoeuvre” that forces it to “choose those subjects where it can have an impact”, such as the fight against terrorism. “India is facing not only Islamic terrorism, but especially separatist and extreme left-wing terrorism”, and in that field, Spain has “experience that can be shared”, he admitted.

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Spain has great possibilities in infrastructures, management of urban services and sanitary products

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As for cultural relations, the expert of the Club de Madrid highlighted the rise of the Spanish language, which has become “one of the languages most chosen by the Indian elites”. “English is already incorporated”, and “to get into the United States, Spanish is the key language, once you manage English”, he added.

In the cultural scene, he affirmed, “it would also be very important” to increase Bollywood’s presence in Spain. In 2012, the Indian film You only live once, which tells the journey of three “Indian moneybags” in our country, where they discover the Tomatina of Buñol and the Sanfermines of Pamplona, “turned Spain into a reference hit in the social networks”. “This film made more than any image campaign that the Spanish Government has ever done in India”, he affirmed.