Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee'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.’’