External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will tomorrow undertake a visit to two important European Union countries — Germany and Belgium — where he will have discussions on enhancing common approaches to address the new and emerging challenges apart from ways to push the long-pending India-EU trade accord.

Khurshid will be holding discussions with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and would call on the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel during his two-day visit on January 28 & 29.

Indo-German bilateral trade

Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe. The Indo-German bilateral trade has registered an increase of 20.8 per cent to reach €15.18 billion during January-October 2011.

Indian exports grew over 25.93 per cent over the same period of 2010 to reach €6.37 billion, while its imports registered an increase of over 17.39 per cent to reach €8.81 billion. The trade surplus is in favour of Germany of about €2.44 billion.

Institutionalised arrangements

The two countries also have several institutionalised arrangements like a Strategic Dialogue, Foreign Office Consultations, Joint Commission on Industrial and Economic Cooperation, Defence Committee Dialogue and a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism to discuss various bilateral and global issues of interest.

During his visit, Khurshid is expected to review the status of talks between India and EU on Free Trade Agreement which were launched in June 2007 and have been witnessing differences over the level of Customs duty cut on some exports like autos and wines to India and visa to Indian professionals to the EU.

Khurshid, who will be in Belgium on January 30-31, will hold bilateral discussions with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and with the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Baroness Catherine Ashton.

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