[*Discuss how India is leveraging V4 (Visegrád) countries to diversify its European partnerships.*](/upsc-mains-answer/discuss-india-leveraging-v4-visegr-d-67af113)

The Visegrád Group (V4) — Slovakia, Czechia, Poland and Hungary — is a Central European bloc of EU and NATO members that India has historically under-engaged. PM Modi's State Visit to Slovakia on 15 June 2026, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister since Slovak independence in 1993, marks a deliberate widening of India's Europe policy beyond its traditional Western European anchors [1].

Political and diplomatic outreach

• Sustained high-level engagement: the President of India's visit to Slovakia (2025) prepared the ground for the PM-level visit, which elevated ties to a Comprehensive Partnership [1][2].
• Institutional depth with the wider V4 — the 8th India-Czech Foreign Office Consultations reviewed the Strategic Partnership on Innovation [3].
• The Joint Statement explicitly backs cooperation with V4, Slavkov-3 and the Three Seas Initiative, converting bilateral gains into regional presence [1].

Economic and connectivity diversification

• The India-Slovakia Joint Economic Committee, functioning since 1995, provides a standing trade platform [4].
• Slovakia's role as a Central European transport hub is being matched with India's manufacturing scale; both sides pushed joint ventures and technology transfer in automotive and railway sectors, plus direct air connectivity [1].

Technology and security

• Cooperation identified in defence industry, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection and post-quantum cryptography [1].
• Slovak President Pellegrini's participation in the India AI Impact Summit 2026 signalled AI and digital public infrastructure as shared pillars [2].

Leverage within the EU

• V4 states carry disproportionate weight in EU decision-making; their goodwill aids ratification and implementation of the India-EU FTA, whose negotiations concluded in January 2026, and the Joint Comprehensive Strategic Agenda 2030 [1].

India's V4 engagement thus converts a diplomatic gap into strategic depth — spreading risk across multiple EU capitals rather than relying on a few. Institutionalising the JEC and FOC mechanisms, expanding student and skilled-worker mobility, and delivering on the FTA would consolidate this. Central Europe, once peripheral to India's imagination of Europe, is emerging as a genuine second pillar of a diversified partnership.