Jaishankar bats for India-EU FTA, says ties more important than ever
On the same day, Jaishankar said at the IIC-Bruegel seminar in New Delhi: “On the FTA, I think it is really time we get along with it.” The India-EU FTA talks have been going on for the last 15 years or so.
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The External Affairs Minister said that in recent years, there has been a “more intensive engagement” with the European Commission and “we expect that to be even more in the coming days, in fact very soon”. (ANI)With the European Commission of 27 commissioners, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, set to visit India later this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Tuesday said it is “really time” that India and the European Union (EU) begin taking the next step on a free trade agreement (FTA).
Jaishankar’s positive signal came on a day President von der Leyen said in Brussels: “Later this month, we will travel for the first ever College visit to India to deepen our partnership right across the board.” The College she was referring to is the “College of Commissioners” — 27 commissioners from all 27 member states of the EU, each assigned a specific area. Such visits by the full European Commission are not routine.
On the same day, Jaishankar said at the IIC-Bruegel seminar in New Delhi: “On the FTA, I think it is really time we get along with it.” The India-EU FTA talks have been going on for the last 15 years or so.
The External Affairs Minister said that in recent years, there has been a “more intensive engagement” with the European Commission and “we expect that to be even more in the coming days, in fact very soon”.
Underlining that a stronger India-EU relationship can be an “important stabilising factor” in a world that promises to be “so volatile and uncertain”, he said the relationship between the two sides is more important now than ever before. “Deeper India-EU collaboration is clearly in our mutual benefit,” he said.
Without naming China, he said: “In our continent, international law has been disregarded with significant consequences.”
“Even on a question like democracy and military rule, different standards have been applied to our neighbours in the East and our neighbour in the West. It is not my case that principles are dispensable or that we must be utterly into realpolitik. But the agenda can no longer be set by some, only to be observed by the rest. This applies to passing judgement on and interfering in the domestic politics of others as well,” he said.
Jaishankar said: “We can all feel intuitively that the world is on the cusp of a big change… Politics is only the tip of the iceberg. Whether it is energy or connectivity, mobility or technology, major shifts await us.”
Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and the strategic affairs community of diplomats and foreign policy experts attended the event.
“The world is currently witnessing two major conflicts, and these are often presented as matters of principle. We are told that the very future of the world order is at stake. Yet, the record shows how selectively and unevenly these principles have been applied,” Jaishankar said.
“We, in India, are yet to see aggression on our territory vacated after so many decades. Equally, terrorism has been overlooked when convenient,” the minister said, in a broad swipe at China and Pakistan.
In his address, Jaishankar also touched upon the aspects of trade and digital technology, climate action, and their interplay with geopolitics.
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