INDIA-EU RELATIONS

INDIA-EU RELATIONS

- EU-India relations go back to the early 1960s.
- India was 1st among the 1st countries to establish diplomatic relations with the then European economic council.
- the 1994 cooperation agreement signed between EU & india took bilateral relations beyond merely trade & economic cooperation.
- the first india-eu summit in lisbon in june 2000 marked a watershed in the evolution of this relationship.
- since then there have been 9 summit-level interactions , the last being the 9th summit at marseille on sept 29 2008.
- the 5th summit at the hauge was a landmark summit for it endoresed the EUs proposal to upgrade its relationship with india to a 'strateic partnership'.

Cooperation in trade, business & investments :
- the eu is inida's largest trading , business , investment sector.
- hte eu is india's largest trading partner & bilateral trade crossed rs.2,70,000 crore in 2006.
- total FOI inflows from the eu to india in US$ 10.86 billion.
- indian investment has also been growing steading in UK, germany, Italy.
- to enhance trade & investment relations there is a new initiative known as 'india-ue business round table'-------- a select group of indian & eu CEOs.
- india-eu also have signes a bilateral investment protection agreemnts with 16 of the 27 eu member states.
- india has also doubled taxation avoidence agreement with 18 out of 27 eu memeber states.
- india -eu have concluded a customs cooperation agreement at brussels in 2004 in order to establish a framework for mutual cooperation & assistance in preventing frauds, tax evasions & other economic offences in this field.

Cooperation in Science & technology :
- in nov 2001 india-eu have signed a joint vision statement for promoting cooperation in this field of information & communication technology.
- india is participating in ITER project for generating energy from nuclear fusion.
- india will also participate in the eu's satellite navigation project 'galileo'.

Recent developments in indo-eu relations :
- india & europe have worked for development of common approaches to addressing new & emerging global challenges like global terrorism, climate change, energy security.
- eu was associated with saarc as an observer & attended the 14th SAARC summit held in new delhi during April1-4 2007.
- summit level have taken place with UK, france, Italy, netherlands, germany, portugal.
- noradic countries are also beginning to view theindian stock market & financial instruments as safe & remunerative investments for their large investible funds & have commenced investing in india.

Outcome of the summit :
- india-eu reiterated that their startegic partnership is firmly based on shared values of democracy & human rights , fundamental freedoms, pluralism rule of law & multilateralism.
- both side agreed to work actively towards a swift finalization of comprehensive convention on international .
- the leaders took note of the current state of play of the Doha development agenda negotiations & reaffiremed their willingness to conclude a comprehensive & balanced trade agreement.
- the leaders stressed that climate change is one of hthe greatest challenges of our time & decided that clean & sustainable development should be a joint priority area of eu-india cooperation.
By N Putti