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India, EU to cooperate in combating terrorism

India and the European Community have decided to jointly work against the menace of international terrorism while upgrading their political relationship to the summit level, Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh said today.

Addressing a press conference along with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Salgueiro, Mansingh said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will lead the Indian delegation at the the first-ever India-EU summit to be held in Lisbon on June 28.

The summit will be attended by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres in his capacity as EU president and representatives of the EU and the European Commisssion.

The EU has summit-level political dialogue with only four other countries -- China, Russia, the United States and Japan -- which covers the political, economic, trade and other issues.

Mansingh said Vajpayee will go on a bilateral visit to Portugal on June 29.

Mansingh and Salgueiro led the Indian and EU delegations at the day-long meeting of the India-EU troika senior officials meeting which was also attended by representatives of the EU, EC, and EU council secretariat.

The main focus of their discussions was on finalising the agenda and the joint declaration to be adopted at the summit.

Other issues discussed were India-EU relations, including political exchanges, civil society dialogue, economic, commercial and technological cooperation, cooperation in specific areas such as environment, human rights, international terrorism. drug trafficking and international security issues.

Salgueiro said the issues to figure at the summit will include regional security situation in Europe and Asia, besides strengthening and expanding of India-EU cooperation.

Besides being India's largest trading partner and biggest source of foreign direct investment, Salgueiro said the EU, comprising 15 countries and 320 million people and having one currency, had tremendous opportunities to work with India in various fields.

An India-EU business meeting will be held a day before the summit at which about 30 Indian and 150 European companies are likely to participate. This business meeting would include sectoral presentations on areas of Indian expertise such as information technology, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and financial services.

UNI

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