EU team on a visit to B’lore
Deccan Herald, India
EU team on a visit to B’lore
14 January 2012
Bangalore, DHNS: Ahead of the India-EU Summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi in February this year, a high-level delegation from the European Union will pay a four-day official visit to India starting on January 15.
As part of the visit, European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in Bangalore on January 16.
The discussion between Krishna and Baroness Ashton will cover bilateral issues of trade and tariff. India and EU have been negotiating over a Free Trade Agreement since 2007, which is currently in its final stages. Baroness Ashton’s visit, who is also the Vice-President of the European Commission, can be seen as preparing the ground for the India EU Summit, official sources said.
India and the 27-nation EU have been negotiating a comprehensive free-trade pact since June 2007. The EU is India’s largest trading partner and bilateral trade in 2009-10 stood at $75 billion.
