Tag: India

Struggling with a difficult eurocrisis, the European Union has focused much on firefighting, but it should not oversee its international role as the 27-nation bloc is a balancing force in the global governance set-up, Dinkar Khullar, India's new envoy to the EU told EurActiv.

India is optimistic it can seal a free trade deal with the European Union and is urging its negotiating partner to settle the details of an agreement it says would benefit both their stumbling economies.

The cancellation of three EU summits with key Asian countries – China, India and South Korea – due to pressing concerns in the euro zone reinforces the perception that the EU struggles to think and act strategically, writes Gauri Khandekar of the Madrid-based think tank FRIDE.

By stating their willingness to help the crisis-hit eurozone, emerging powers – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – stressed once more their key role in world geo-economics and politics. However, the BRICS remain too different to define common interests and should not have a centre-stage role in Europe's crisis, writes Susanne Gratius from the Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE.

While relations between India and China or India and the US have their moments of tension, nothing divides the country and Europe, except when Europe tries to give too much advice on domestic issues, said Shashi Tharoor, a former UN under-secretary general and a member of the Indian parliament, in an in interview with EurActiv.

India's relations with the European Union currently remain a predominantly bilateral affair between New Delhi and London, Paris or Berlin. But Indian politicians believe the EU is a model from which they could seek inspiration from when it comes to evening up development across its regions. EurActiv reports from New Delhi.

A free trade area rather than a strategic partnership is what the EU needs with India, writes Gauri Khandekar for Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE.

To become stronger internationally, Europe must take Turkey on board, Yuhishthir Raj Isar, a professor at the American University in Paris, told EurActiv in an interview.

Despite the need to come up with a global climate deal by the end of the year in Copenhagen, diplomats involved in the negotiations are not making enough progress, India's special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The global expansion of India's pharmaceutical industry means it is becoming "more and more of a major [...] location" for the sector, says an April study led by Uwe Perlitz for Deutsche Bank Research, revealing that the country ranks alongside China as one of the world's top pharmaceutical markets with the highest growth rates.

EU foreign ministers have given the go-ahead for free-trade negotiations with key trading partners in Asia, in a move that WTO chief Pascal Lamy says could divert attention from talks on a global trade pact.

The EU is set to lodge a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization against India, in an effort to prise open a growing market for spirits and wine.

MEPs have backed a report which calls on the Commission to pay more attention to India and open talks on a free-trade agreement.

The EU and India have agreed to develop a comprehensive framework for a strategic partnership at their fifth summit in the Hague on 8 November.