Brussels, 20/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Second EU-India Summit will begin in New Delhi on the "post-11 September" and "post-Doha" situation (see yesterday's issue of EUROPE, page 10). The large EU delegation that will be meeting its Indian partners, led by Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, includes President of the European Council, Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Commission, Romano Prodi and the Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy.
There was no great surprise that discussions with representatives from the sub-continent, whose main trade partner is the EU, will focus on the changes in the region brought about by the terrorist attacks in New York. On Tuesday, in Brussels, a Commission spokesperson stressed that the Summit should allow for a greater dialogue to develop between the two parties and would also provide the Europeans with the occasion to hammer home the necessity of a real dialogue between the Indians and Pakistanis, especially on the question of Kashmir. It should also enable some of the results notched up since the last EU-India Summit in June 2000 to be underlined, particularly in the field of environmental co-operation. The signing of agreements on a European contribution of Euro 200 million to promote primary school education and scientific and technological co-operation is also expected. Trade matters also figure on the agenda: on this point, the Commission has stressed that the Summit should enable an initial assessment of the Ministerial meeting in Doha, from which developing countries did not leave empty-handed, particularly on the issue of improving the access of countries from the North to their textile products. Sources in Brussels indicated that an exchange of views would take place on the access to markets, in an effort to outline a political framework in which this issue can be discussed in the future.
On Saturday, EU representatives will press on to Pakistan where they will raise the same political and economic questions with the highest authorities in the country and sign a new co-operation agreement. This agreement will be focusing more on enlarging the filed of co-operation between the two parties, rather than on additional funding (Islamabad was the EU Troika's first port of call in the region after the attacks of 11 September).