PRIME MINISTER’S REMARKS TO MEDIA AFTER INDIA-
EU SUMMIT
Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee made
the following remarks while inter-acting with the media after
the India- EU Summit at Copenhagen today:
`` I am glad to be in this beautiful city for
the Third India-EU Summit. My delegation and I appreciate the
excellent arrangements made for our visit.
We are satisfied with the pace of development
of our relations with the European Union. Our excellent relations
are based on our shared values of democracy, pluralism and tolerance.
We are partners in the international coalition against terrorism.
We have common perspectives on a number of global issues. The
rapid growth of trade and investment in recent years has added
a new dimension to these ties .
These annual summits have been an effective
forum to discuss all issues arising from our multi-faceted relationship.
We feel there is scope for a further intensification of dialogue
process at other levels.
Our two delegations have had a very useful
meeting on matters of mutual interest. Besides our bilateral relations,
we discussed important regional and global issues. International
terrorism naturally figured in our talks, including the cross
border terrorism which India has been facing over the past two
decades.
Today we discussed the progress on implementation
of the decisions taken at the New Delhi Summit last year. We have
agreed on a detailed blueprint of action for the year ahead on
key areas of our co-operation. Specific bottlenecks impeding further
expansion of trade and investment were discussed. We need to focus
more closely on effective implementation of our agreed agenda.
Our experts will meet more regularly to discuss issues of market
access for our products. India and European Union have also agreed
to work closely to co-ordinate our positions on international
trade and investment issues.
The business summit over the last two days
highlighted potential areas of co-operation, including information
technology and biotechnology. The recommendations of our business
communities need to be carefully considered by our governments.
We believe that the Business Summit is an integral part of the
comprehensive India- European Union dialogue. With the deepening
of our second –generation of economic reforms, the Indian market
merits more sustained attention from European investors.
The impressive progress of the European Union
in recent years makes it natural that other nations would seek
to join it. India has followed the process of European integration
with great interest. India looks forward to intensifying its engagement
with the European Union as it progresses towards its historic
goal of integration through expansion.
Thank You.’’
