Naveen KapoorHelsinki, October 13
Asserting that achieving energy security to provide for safe, affordable and sustainable energy supplies was a common concern of India and the European Union (EU), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urged the EU to support India’s quest for nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
In his opening statement at the seventh India-EU Summit here, he said both sides must look to alternatives to dependence on fossil fuels through non-polluting sources such as nuclear energy.
He further said a meeting in Vienna with the Nuclear Suppliers Group yesterday gave India the opportunity to reiterate its firm commitment to non-proliferation objectives while working with like-minded countries in expanding cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
He also thanked the European Union for its support for India joining the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project as a full partner country.
Dr Manmohan Singh reiterated that strengthening international cooperation against terrorism was of vital importance to all free and democratic societies.
“The recent bombings in Mumbai and the earlier bombings in London, Madrid and Srinagar remind us that terrorism remains the most serious threat to democratic, open and pluralistic countries”, he said.
Terming India and the EU as indispensable pillars of a new multi-polar world order, he said both had the will and the capability to make meaningful contributions for meeting the challenges of managing global interdependence.
He said the two sides must work against artificially dividing the world along religious or cultural lines as such divisions would spell the death knell of globalisation.
Pointing out that while there were some rules for managing growing economic interdependence, he said we still lacked forward-looking institutional arrangements to manage the global political order.
Welcoming the forward movement in implementing the Joint Action Plan adopted at the last summit in New Delhi in September last year, he said consolidation of strategic partnership and intensification of dialogue with the EU had been a priority of New Delhi’s foreign policy.
He expressed satisfaction on the report of the High-Level Trade Group, that had recommended for decision by this summit, the launching of negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement with the EU.
He said the EU was not only India’s largest trading partner, but also the country’s largest source of foreign direct investment and high technology collaborations.
He said the two sides had also agreed to deal with issues that hampered bilateral trade and investment ties between India and the EU.
Talking about the India-EU relationship, Dr Manmohan Singh said the shared values of democracy and respect for human rights and commitment to pluralism and liberty made the two sides natural partners.
He went on to say that India’s global vision would remain imbalanced without the EU, more so now, with the EU’s integrated foreign and defence policies.
He added that the EU’s engagement with Asia would be incomplete without India.
“This recognition has found expression in the recent decision to include India in the ASEM, which we welcome and appreciate”, he said.
Lauding the increasing growth rate of the country in recent years, he said, “We want the EU to be a partner in our ambition to increase and sustain growth rates of 10 per cent per annum in the coming years”.
He said New Delhi wanted the EU to look at India as a safe, secure and profitable trade and investment destination and a hub for high-technology research and development, manufacturing and services.
The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the EU would soon conclude an agreement confirming India’s membership of the Galileo Global Satellite Project.
— ANI
In video (
