EU-India Summit: Vision and Mission

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Abstract

India and the European Union are committed to a framework for strategic cooperation until 2025. They have vowed to cooperate in their response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as within the United Nations Security Council. Towards this end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with the European Council’s President Charles Michel and the European Commission’s President Ursula Von der Leyen via videoconferencing on Wednesday, July 15, 2020. In an initiative to revive talks on a free trade agreement which were suspended since 2013, the two sides announced a “high-level dialogue” between India’s Commerce Minister and the EU Trade Commissioner, who would try and forward the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). “India and the EU are natural partners”, Prime Minister Modi said in his opening remarks. “Our partnership is important for global peace and stability, and this reality is clearer given the situation around the world.” He also referred to shared “universal values” of democracy, pluralism, inclusivity, respect for international institutions, and multilateralism between India and the EU. As the EU and India head to deepen their smooth, cordial and beneficial relationship, some regional and global issues pose a challenge. Raising border issues, refugee problems and great power rivalries seem to constitute almost insurmountable obstacles. […]