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EU set to upgrade relationship with India

NEW DELHI - Ahead of the Indo-EU summit at The Hague next week, European Union member countries have arrived at a "consensus" to upgrade the group's relationship with New Delhi to a strategic partnership.

"There is a consensus among the European Union member countries ... The EU is keen that Indo-EU relationship be upgraded to the level of strategic partnership as in the case of US, China, Russia, Canada and Japan," The Netherlands Ambassador Eric F Ch Niehe said. The Netherlands currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is leaving Delhi on Sunday to attend the one-day Indo-EU summit at The Hague the next day where details are to be finalized in this regard. Apart from building a strategic partnership, Indian and EU leaders will discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including cooperation on countering terrorism, reform of the United Nations and multilateral issues like the World Trade Organization, head of the European Union delegation here, Francisco Da Camara Gomes, said.

The summit would also endorse an Agenda for Action to implement the ideas and proposals put forward by the European Commission in a communication to India.

India has responded "positively" to the idea on which there was a consensus among the European union, Gomes said.

(Asia Pulse/PTI)

Nov 6, 2004

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