Brussels, 04/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The New Delhi Summit, attended last weekend by the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Margherita Boniver for the Presidency of the Council, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, marks a reinforcement of the relationship between the Union and India. Mr Prodi welcomed that fact that the partners were able to "join forces to confront common global challenges". "India shares the same ideas as the EU on multilateralism, and we share a common vision of how to run the world", said Mr Solana.
After an overview of political, diplomatic and commercial current affairs, European and Indian officials marked their agreement, as anticipated, on a 14 million EUR programme for the development of trade and bilateral investments, India's involvement in the Galileo European satellite project, and customs and maritime co-operation (see p.15); with the emphasis on facilitation of exchanges. The joint declarations made at the end of the meeting, which we will reproduce in EUROPE/Documents, welcomed last week's cease-fire between the Indian and Pakistani armed forces along the line dividing the controversial Kashmir region, and the commitment to work to reinforce the multilateral trade regime in the framework of the WTO. India and the Union say that they are "both committed to a successful conclusion of the Doha negotiation round". "We should help to boost the Doha process", said President Prodi, and we must do this "very, very soon, because if we abandon the multilateral system, this will be bad news for India, Europe, everybody"