Brussels, 29/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - French President and President of the European Council Nicolas Sarkozy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meeting in Marseilles on Monday 29 September in the 9th EU-India Bilateral Summit, welcomed the similarity of the views of their two blocs on international issues and global challenges.
The strength of the EU-India strategic partnership that was established in 2004 lies in strong commercial relations. The two sides also agreed to speed up bilateral free trade agreement negotiations, launched at the start of 2006, but which have progressed little since, largely because of their close links with Doha Round talks. The EU and India, major WTO players, also restated their desire to conclude a “full and balanced” multilateral agreement. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his Indian counterpart Kamal Nath were also in Marseilles and they held an exchange of views on how they could conclude a bilateral agreement before the end of the year. The declared common objective was bilateral trade of the order of €100 million per year within the next five years.
Apart from exchanges of view on the main global challenges, such as the reform of international institutions, energy security, food security and combating terrorism, the parties focussed their discussions on climate change, which sees a wide divergence of view between the EU, which is calling on emerging economies to play their part in combating global warming so that an international agreement on the post-Kyoto regime can be reached by 2009, and India which, like China, is against any binding commitments, pointing out that that would endanger its economic growth and its efforts to eradicate poverty. Like Beijing, New Delhi is unwilling to accept any binding target for reducing CO2 emissions and highlights the responsibility of the developed countries. In their joint declaration, the parties limit themselves to noting the efforts made by each other, the Indian national action plan and the EU's commitment to reduce its emissions by at least 20% by 2020, but state their decision to work towards long-term cooperation which carries with it a long-term global target.
The European leaders welcomed the Indian government's will to use nuclear power, which has seen the recent conclusion of a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. Barroso offered New Delhi the opportunity to take part in all research and civil nuclear security issues within the framework of the Euratom Treaty. At the bilateral Franco-Indian Summit on 30 September, Sarkozy and Singh are expected to announce a civil nuclear cooperation agreement which will open the way to the Indian market for French energy group Areva. “India is a major power. How can we say to our Indian partners that they should be involved in combating climate change without the use of nuclear energy, which we know is the cleanest energy of all? That would make no sense at all,” Sarkozy said.
Also discussed was the international financial crisis, on which there was clear agreement between European and Indian leaders. They agreed on the need urgently to tackle the repercussions of the financial crisis and correct the global economic imbalances through concerted action by the world economy's major players. India, well aware that it could also be affected, backed the proposal that President Sarkozy submitted to the United Nations last week, to hold a world conference to overhaul the international financial system. In this context, Sarkozy and Barroso announced that they would, “over the coming days”, before the European Council of 15 October, bring together the four European G8 countries (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) and the European monetary authorities (the Presidents of the European Central Bank and the Eurogroup) in Paris to prepare a world summit.
The parties examined the Iranian nuclear issue, the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Burma/Myanmar, on which Sarkozy stressed that the “attitude of the Burmese junta towards humanitarian aid organisations was intolerable”. Tacking terrorism was also discussed, and the two sides agreed to maintain their cooperation with the rapid exchange of information and intelligence between Europol and Indian agencies.
European and Indian leaders fleshed out the action plan linking the two blocs since 2005, extending it to new areas of cooperation: education and culture, science and technology, particularly nuclear since the Marseilles Summit saw negotiations finalised between Euratom and India in nuclear fusion to involve New Delhi in the ITER project. A joint work programme on energy, sustainable development and climate change, providing for cooperation on clean coal, energy efficiency and renewable energies, was also agreed. The two also concluded a horizontal cooperation civil aviation agreement.
Sarkozy, on behalf of the EU, welcomed the Indian Prime Minister's “firm comments” condemning the recent attacks against religious minorities, especially Christians, in India. “India is a secular country with many religions. The Indian government is committed to guaranteeing all its citizens freedom of belief,” Singh stressed to conclude the press conference. (E.H./transl.rt)