MEA lashes out at European diplomats’ comments

But with Denmark poised to take on the presidency of the European Union in July and in fact, hosting the India—EU summit in October, Copenhagen seems to have also realised the importance of making peace with India. Stollig promised New Delhi today that he would not rake over the Gujarat coals by speaking to the media here about the substance of his visit.

A Senior Officials Meeting between India and the EU begins here on Thursday and diplomats here confirmed that the Gujarat events would again come up during the conversations.

Interestingly, Rafael Conde, director-general in charge of Asia in the Spanish foreign office, who issued a verbal demarche to India’s ambassador to Spain Dilip Lahiri on April 23, is believed to be leading the EU side in the talks. The Indian side is expected to be led by Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer.

Significantly, the European Union is not likely to completely shut up on Gujarat, even though New Delhi may like it to. An economic team from the European Commission in Brussels is expected here in the next day or two to discuss the treatment and continuation of development and aid projects that the EU funds in India. Sources here pointed out that the EU aid meetings would include ongoing projects in Gujarat.

In fact, the EU held a coordination meeting in the capital last week on what to do with the aid projects in Modi’s state, but decided that they would ‘‘wait and watch’’ the situation for the time being.