Lisbon, New Delhi expect to restart EU-India talks in May
The strengthening of political and economic relations with India is among the priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU.
Portugal and India hope to resume negotiations on trade and investment between the European Union (EU) and India at the summit between the leaders of the 27 and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in May, in Porto.
The expectation was reinforced on Tuesday by India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva after a meeting by video conference.
Quoted by the Press Trust of India, the country’s largest news agency, the minister said that the resumption of formal negotiations on Trade and Investment agreements at the meeting of India and EU leaders on May 8, 2021 in Porto would be a remarkable success for the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU.
Such a resumption of negotiations (launched in 2007 but at a standstill since 2013) would further strengthen India’s ties with the EU, the minister added.
Contacted by Lusa, a source from Augusto Santos Silva’s office said that, as the presidency, Portugal has sought to facilitate dialogue between the European Union and India to ensure the success of the leaders’ meeting in Porto, and considered it extremely important that the negotiations on trade and investment […] be resumed, with concrete results that mutually benefitted both parties.
In a series of tweets published after the meeting, Nirmala Sitharaman also referred to “the need to build on historic bilateral ties based on stronger economic and financial links befitting a 21st-century partnership built on mutual trust and equal commitment.”
The strengthening of political and economic relations with India is among the priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU.
Prime Minister António Costa has said he hopes the EU-India summit in Porto could be a milestone in the European Union’s future relationship with the Indian Union and Santos Silva to launch a regular political dialogue between the two largest political democracies in the world.
