Last Update: February 28, 2023, 17:07 IST
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. (Image: PTI File)
Jaishankar also said that Europe and India can strengthen each other’s strategic autonomy by reducing dependence, collaborating on critical technologies.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India expects its proposed free trade agreement with the European Union to be a “game-changer” and is looking forward to a mutually beneficial conclusion to the negotiation process for the agreement. Tuesday
In an address at an event at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Jaishankar also said that Europe and India Strengthen each other’s strategic autonomy by reducing interdependence, collaborating on critical technologies and ensuring supply-chain restructuring.
“We expect the India-EU FTA to be a game-changer for India-EU relations. We look forward to a mutually beneficial, mutually beneficial conclusion to the dialogue process within a reasonably short planned time frame.”
In June last year, India and the European Union resumed talks for a long-pending trade and investment agreement after a gap of eight years. Begun in June 2007, talks for the proposed agreement have seen several roadblocks as the two sides had major differences on key issues.
“India’s new approach to trade agreements addresses the issues of non-tariff and border barriers, quality standards and related benchmarks,” Jaishankar said.
“With like-minded partners, we have indeed demonstrated rapid turnaround of our FTA negotiation processes in recent years. FTAs with the UAE and Australia were concluded in virtually record time.”
Barriers behind a border are non-tariff discriminatory trade barriers within a country.
“Europe and India can strengthen each other’s strategic autonomy by reducing interdependence; collaborating on critical technologies; and ensuring supply-chain restructuring. Therefore, India-EU FTA is our very important goal,” Jaishankar said.
The External Affairs Minister said that the recently unveiled trade and technology The Council (TTC) will provide structure and strategic guidance to the partnership between the two sides.
The TTC is expected to facilitate exchange of critical technologies related to an array of domains including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors and cyber security.
The TTC with India is the second such technology partnership of the European Union, after the first one with the United States in June 2021.
Jaishankar said, ‘I would like to say that India’s relations with Europe are stronger and deeper than ever before and this incident in itself is a proof of that claim.’
“Between us, we have the largest democratic and free market space globally. The business communities of India and Europe have a large stake and an enabling role in this transformation,” he said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)