Brussels, 26/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The eighth EU-India summit will be held in New Delhi, India, on 30 November 2007. The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will meet with his Portuguese counterpart, Jose Socrates, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the EU high representative for the CFSP, Javier Solana. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath, Indian Foreign Minister Shri Pranab and Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado will also attend the meeting. The partners will publish a joint statement. 60 years after Indian independence and 50 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the EU and India will highlight their commitment to continue down the path outlined in the strategic partnership signed in The Hague, Netherlands, in November 2004 (see EUROPE 8823). They will reaffirm their common values of democracy, fundamental freedoms, pluralism, the rule of law and multilateralism in the international political (but probably not financial) landscape.
Indians and Europeans will also discuss the implementation of the action plan adopted in September 2005 (see EUROPE 9022) to boost dialogue mechanisms, consultation and exchange in the domains of politics, culture, education, business and trade. According to the draft statement, they will call on cooperation to continue in innovation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, research into clean development, climate change, the promotion of energy security and supplies of sustainable energy. Persistence will be needed with regard to progress to date, mutual interests at stake and often divergent aspirations. Concretely, the politicians are expected to renew the 2001 scientific and technological cooperation agreement, sign civil aviation and shipping agreements and announce the opening of a European Business and Technology Centre in India.
Both sides will re-affirm their determination to see a successful conclusion of the World Trade Organisation's Doha trade round and progress in the EU-India trade talks, officially decided upon in Helsinki in 2006 (see EUROPE 9286) and launched in June 2007 (see EUROPE 9457). Indian import duties have come down but remain relatively high and are seen by Europeans as an opaque system, whereas the Indians complain about the EU's frequent recourse to anti-dumping duties on Indian exports, particularly shoes.
Politically, the highlight will again be multilateralism, disarmament, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and counter-terrorism. The summit will also look at a raft of international issues like Lebanon, the Middle East, Africa, Burma/Myanmar and Pakistan but in this connection, the substance and tone of the joint message is an open question. (A.B.)