Skip to main content

India, Austria Agree To Push for Quicker India-EU Free Trade Deal

Emphasising that India and the European Union have "the largest and most vibrant free-market space in the world," India and Austria on Wednesday discussed the India-EU relationship and said the long-pending EU Free Trade Agreement must be expedited.

Noting that deeper EU-India ties will be mutually beneficial as well as have a positive global impact, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reaffirmed their strong support for the ongoing India-EU trade and investment negotiations and the early implementation of the EU-India Connectivity Partnership.

PM Modi paid an official two-day visit to Austria at the invitation of Chancellor Nehammer, the first visit to Austria of an Indian Prime Minister after 41 years in a year that marks the 75th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"A set of issues on which both Chancellor and the Prime Minister focused was India-EU relationship, as you know, in their EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has been under negotiation for over 23 years," Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a media briefing here on PM Modi's visit.

"Prime Minister Modi and the Austrian Chancellor agreed that this was an awfully long time for discussions to have been dragged on and they agreed that this is something that both India and they should try to try in terms of taking it forward at a quicker pace," Mr Kwatra said.

"They of course, also spoke about the range of opportunities both in the economic and political space," he said, adding, "They are in India-EU partnership and also how India-Austria relationship positions synergistically in the overall India-EU relationship." 

The EU is India's third largest trading partner, accounting for 88 billion Euros worth of trade in goods in 2021 or 10.8 per cent of total Indian trade. India is the EU's 10th largest trading partner, accounting for 2.1 per cent of EU total trade in goods. Trade in services between the EU and India reached 30.4 billion Euros in 2020, according to the figures available on the EU website.

An India-Austria joint statement at the end of the official state visit said the two leaders emphasised that India and the European Union have the largest and most vibrant free-market space in the world, and noted that deeper EU-India ties will be mutually beneficial as well as have a positive global impact.

"Chancellor Nehammer and Prime Minister Modi agreed to support various initiatives to bring India and the EU closer. In this context, they reaffirmed their strong support for the ongoing India-EU trade and investment negotiations and the early implementation of the EU-India Connectivity Partnership," it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/eJlzimS
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Power Firm Admits It May Have Sparked Texas' Largest Wildfire Ever

A US power company admitted Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas' history. Xcel -- the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state -- said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the blaze that charred more than a million acres (over 400,000 hectares). "Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire," the company said. Hundreds of homes are thought to have been destroyed in the fire, which is known to have killed at least two people and over 3,000 farm animals. Xcel, which is facing at least one lawsuit, denied its equipment was improperly maintained. "However, we encourage people who had property destroyed by, or livestock lost in, the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim to Xcel Energy through our claims process," the statement said. The W
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a
Post a Comment
Read more

All You Need To Know About Donald Trump's 1st Criminal Trial

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec
Post a Comment
Read more