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The India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations and partnership in the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) hold a lot of promise and signify the growing intensity of economic exchange between the two, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
Speaking at the EU National Day celebrations in the national capital, he emphasised that India attaches a lot of importance to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC), agreed upon last year, and looks forward to taking it forward.
The event was hosted by EU Ambassador to India Herve Delphin on Thursday.
“The European Union is our largest economic partner. But it is more than that. It is an entity with which we have a very deep relationship spanning many domains. And it is expressed not just in the relationship between New Delhi and Brussels but in the aggregate of different bilateral relationships, in the regional and sub regional formats in which we engage each other. And in a range of institutions that we are are both members of and where we collaborate with each other,” Jaishankar said.
In his speech, the European Union Ambassador said India is the country that has gained tremendous importance for the EU, and the partnership will deepen further.
“In this turbulent environment, there is one country, and one relationship that has gained tremendous importance for the EU, and it is India,” Delphin said.
Jaishankar pointed out that an important element of the growing ties between India and the EU is the economic relationship between the two.
“Today, the numbers tell their own story. The exchanges speak of the intensity of our ties. And perhaps more than that the promise of what the negotiations underway we have of the FTA,” he said.
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Mentioning the partnership between India and the EU in the TTC, the minister pointed out that such partnership underlines the significance of not just the present relationship between the two but what portends for both.
The EU-India TTC, launched in February 2023, is the EU’s second such endeavour after the one with the US.
Its aims are to increase bilateral cooperation, boost bilateral trade and investment (in the same context as the free trade agreement under negotiation between the two parties), and to capitalise on both parties’ strengths to ensure their technological and industrial leadership while preserving their shared values, per the EU.
The relationship between India and the EU is also of great consequence if one looks at the challenges that the world faces, especially in terms of the need for more resilient and reliable supply chains and the need for a stronger digital cooperation based on trust and transparency.
“I also take the opportunity to recognise the contribution of the European Union to an initiative, which was a agreed upon last year, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. We certainly attach enormous importance to it and look forward to taking it forward,” Jaishakar said.
Among the welcome developments in recent years has been the greater interest that the EU, and individual European States, have taken in the Indo-Pacific, the minister pointed out.
“Many countries, and the EU, as a whole, today have an approach to the Indo-Pacific that we welcome very sincerely,” he said.
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