| Both sides sign Memorandum of Understanding on Country Strategy Paper for India |
FOR stronger ties: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Portugal Prime Minister Jose Socrates (left) and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso before the delegation-level talks of the India-EU Summit in New Delhi on Friday.
NEW DELHI: India and the European Union (EU) on Friday resolved to accelerate the talks towards finalising an agreement by next year-end.
"We are engaged in negotiations over a broad-based trade and investment agreement with the EU. I am hopeful that by the next summit it will be in place," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference with Portugese Prime Minister Jose Socrates at the end of a one-day India-EU Summit here.
"Both sides want to recognise that the agreement must be ambitious and more broad-based," Mr. Socrates said.
The two sides have been negotiating a free trade agreement since October last year and the Summit saw them reviewing the progress of the talks aimed at covering over 90 per cent of the bilateral trade.
Both sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on the "Country Strategy Paper for India for 2007-2010," which with a total budget of 260 million Euros will support India's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and implement the India-EU Joint Action Plan.
Dr. Singh and Mr. Socrates noted the intensification of the dialogue at various levels between India and the EU as well as with individual EU member States. In particular, they welcomed the formation of a "Delegation for Relations with India" in the European Parliament, and agreed that the creation of an Indian parliamentary caucus for relations with the EU would encourage interaction between parliamentarians from the two sides.
The two leaders underlined the need to increase the people-to-people contacts between India and EU member States for business people, professionals and members of official delegations, as well as researchers, scientists, students, academics and civil society representatives.
A joint statement at the end of the Summit reaffirmed their commitment to a successful and timely outcome of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) multilateral trade negotiations, which remained the "foremost trade policy priority of the two sides."
India was represented at the Summit by Dr. Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan.
The EU was represented by Mr. Socrates as President of the European Council, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson and Portuguese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Joao Gomes Cravinho.
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