28 June: EU-India summit

Date: 06/07/2000

THE EU and India agreed a wide-ranging action plan to strengthen future relations at their first summit in Lisbon last week. They also agreed to improve cooperation within the World Trade Organisation and to boost bilateral trade.

AT THE meeting attended by the Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres and his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee, the two sides agreed to launch a “new strategic partnership founded on shared values and aspirations”. They endorsed a 22-point action plan including a pledge to hold future regular summits and twice-yearly ministerial meetings. The plan commits the Union and India to promote a dialogue on combating terrorism and to tackle international drug trafficking and drug abuse.

IN THE field of security, Guterres raised the EU's concern about India's nuclear weapons programme while the Indian prime minister reassured him that India would sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

IN TALKS on trade issues, the two sides said bilateral trade and investment between the EU and India was failing to meet its potential, even though the Union is India's biggest trading partner. They agreed to work to increase trade from the current level of €23 billion to €42 billion by 2010. On international trade policy, the EU and India agreed to hold twice-yearly meetings at official level to identify common approaches to issues such as boosting market access, developing WTO rules, supporting economic growth and development and integrating developing countries into the international trading system.

AMONG other issues covered, the two sides pledged to conclude negotiations on an agreement on co-operation in science and technology and to strengthen the work of a high-level economic and commercial dialogue on bilateral and multilateral trade, economic and financial issues.