Brussels, 31/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - At their 13th bilateral summit, the EU and India pledged to cooperate more in the fight against terrorism and the management of refugee crises. The leaders of the two sides also breathed new life into the EU-India strategic partnership by adopting a work programme for the next five years and launching sectoral partnerships in the fields of sustainable economy, water, energy and the climate (see EUROPE 11520).
Strongly condemning the 22 March attack in Brussels, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, agreed to boost EU-India cooperation in the fight against terrorism, adopting a statement to strengthen cooperation to counter extremism and radicalisation and halt the flow of foreign combatants, arms and sources of finance for terrorism.
During their discussions, both sides' leaders stated on several occasions that the EU and India “are the two largest democracies of the world… who are governed by the joint conviction that democracy needs checks-and-balances and that rule of law is crucial, and that, of course, needs efforts to be applied when fighting terrorism … But that doesn't mean that democracy needs to be weak in fighting terrorism”, as a high-ranking European official put it on Thursday 31 March.
In light of the refugee crises in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, the leaders of the EU and India welcomed on Wednesday the setting up of a joint migration and mobility programme, CAMM, which will cover legal migration, illegal migration and human trafficking, development issues linked to migration and international protection. The aim of CAMM is to lay the foundations of long-term cooperation between the EU and India on managing migration.
Our source said this would help move towards visa-free travel for diplomatic passport-holders, facilitating the readmission of illegal immigrants and facilitating legal migration. The EU, he said, has big problems with India's neighbours, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
On the international front, the EU and India pledged to intensify cooperation on foreign policy and security. In this connection, they affirmed their support for current efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, saying they were eagerly awaiting the ministerial conference on Afghanistan in Brussels on 5 October that aims to renew a framework of partnership and international cooperation for Afghanistan until 2020. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)