(HT)
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič on Wednesday reviewed progress in negotiations between India and the European Union (EU) on a free trade agreement, with both sides emphasising that the deal would elevate the bilateral partnership to the next level.
In February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set a deadline for concluding the FTA by the yearend. Negotiations on the trade deal have gained urgency in the face of global economic churn created by the tariff policies of President Donald Trump’s administration in the US.
Following a meeting with Šefčovič in Brussels, Jaishankar said in a social media post that both sides recognised the “progress in our discussions for a comprehensive, balanced and meaningful FTA agreement between India and EU”.
“Agreed that it would elevate our strategic partnership, that is rapidly acquiring new dimensions and facets,” he added.
Šefčovič, who is the European Commission’s head for trade and economic security, said in a separate social media post that he and Jaishankar discussed “efforts to elevate the EU-India partnership to the next level – through a commercially meaningful trade agreement”.
“We keep our strategic lenses firmly in place, and I’m looking forward to seeing [Union commerce minister] Piyush Goyal soon,” Šefčovič said, referring to India’s commerce minister who has visited Brussels several times this year to give a push to the negotiations on the trade deal.
Jaishankar, who is on a week-long visit to Belgium and France, also met the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in Brussels and said in a social media post that they discussed the “strengthening of India-EU parliamentary ties, building upon our shared values of democracy and pluralism”.
“Value her positive sentiments on advancing our partnership in trade, technology and security,” he added.
Jaishankar held a separate meeting with Jozef Sikela, the European commissioner for international partnerships, and discussed the India-EU engagement in connectivity, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), green shipping and clean energy.
The two sides also signed a trilateral cooperation arrangement that Jaishankar said will benefit the Global South.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Euractiv, Jaishankar said the recent India-Pakistan clashes were about terrorism that “will eventually come back to haunt” Europe.
Responding to a question on the international media framing the clashes as a “tit-for-tat between two nuclear-armed neighbours”, he replied: “Let me remind you of something — there was a man named Osama bin Laden. Why did he, of all people, feel safe living for years in a Pakistani military town, right next to their equivalent of West Point?”
“I want the world to understand — this isn’t merely an India-Pakistan issue. It’s about terrorism. And that very same terrorism will eventually come back to haunt you,” Jaishankar added.
He said that India has a “longest-standing grievance” about Western countries being supportive of Pakistan when it violated India’s borders just months after the country’s Independence in 1947 by sending “invaders to Kashmir”.
“If those same countries — who were evasive or reticent then — now say ‘let’s have a great conversation about international principles’, I think I’m justified in asking them to reflect on their own past,” he said.
