Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) India and the 27-nation European Union will hold wide-ranging talks Tuesday to firm up the agenda for the India-EU summit later this year and explore cooperation between the two sides in stabilising the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
EU’s chief diplomat Catherine Ashton arrives here Monday night on a four-day visit that is aimed at investing India-EU relationship with greater economic and strategic content.

Ashton, high representative for foreign affairs and security policy of the EU and the first vice president of the European Commission, will hold delegation-level talks with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Tuesday.

The talks are expected to focus on giving an added impetus to negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment pact, increasing counter-terror cooperation and enhancing trade and investment between India and the EU.

The two sides will firm up the agenda for the India-EU summit Brussels is likely to host in October, official sources said.

Ashton will also call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and meet Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi and Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

The volatile situation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, a source of continuing concern for the EU, will also figure in the discussions.

“The EU appreciates India’s contribution to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, but is concerned that the country does not become a new arena of proxy war or rivalry between India and Pakistan,” said diplomatic sources.

India and the EU are expected to stress on fast-tracking negotiations to reach an agreement on a broad-based trade and investment pact with a view to concluding it by the October summit.

Last month, India’s Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar and European Commission’s Director General for Trade David O’ Sullivan discussed a host of issues relating to the proposed pact, including trade in goods and services, matters relating to intellectual property rights and non-tariff barriers to trade.

India has pitched for a balanced outcome in view of difference in the level of development of the two sides.

The bilateral trade between the 27-nation bloc and India is estimated to be over $50 billion. The two sides agreed to double bilateral trade in another five years at the India-EU summit in Marseilles, France, in September 2008.