New Delhi(IANS) : India and the 27-nation European Union Friday decided to fast-track negotiations for clinching a defining trade pact by next year and discussed the possibilities of civilian nuclear cooperation, but the EU remained non-committal on backing New Delhi in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
India and the EU Friday ended their eighth summit here by signing two accord in areas of science and technology and development cooperation for 2007-2010 and promoting “a good compromise” and “a definite roadmap” for control of greenhouse gas emissions post-2012 at the climate change meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month.
The EU, however, struck a cautious note on the India-US nuclear deal, saying while it appreciated the Asian economy’s growing energy needs, it has yet to evolve a common position on supporting India’s nuclear deal with the US in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
“Of course, we understand the importance of use of nuclear technology in India. India’s demand for energy is growing. We totally understand that,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates told reporters when asked about the EU’s stand on supporting India in the NSG.
“We support the conversation between India and the US in this area,” he said.
“We are trying to reach a common position (on the India-US nuclear deal),” Socrates said at a joint press interaction with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Portugal currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
“It is necessary to (make) compromise for guarantee of safety in use of nuclear technology for those who use it and others as well,” he said. “We are trying to achieve that compromise,” he added.
Socrates stressed that after the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, likely later next month, the EU will have a stronger constitution to give a push to a common foreign policy and to speak in one voice on major global issues.
Socrates, however, reiterated the EU’s common vision on nuclear energy with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) forming its centre. “The use of nuclear technology must be regulated in the world. The key convention for regulating nuclear technology is the NPT,” Socrates said, hinting that India, which has not signed the NPT, may have to try harder to win the backing of the 45-nation NSG for global civilian nuclear cooperation.
The EU is watching closely New Delhi’s negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but it will be up to individual nations to decide their stand in the NSG.
Some of European nations like Austria, Ireland and Scandinavian countries are sceptical about the India-US nuclear deal as these countries have special sensitivities on nuclear energy.
Likewise, the EU remained ambivalent on India’s quest for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
“EU has no common position on future Security Council. Twenty-seven countries have different opinions,” Socrates said.
In the same breath, he added that the UN reforms were necessary to make it “more representative” as the world today was quite different from that of 1945 when the international body was formed.
The two sides discussed a host of issues, including energy, terrorism, the UN, the Doha round of negotiations and regional developments in South Asia, and reviewed a joint action plan to implement decisions taken at earlier summits.
Promoting trade and investment dominated the eighth India-EU summit. “We are engaged in negotiations over a broad-based trade and investment agreement with the EU. I am hopeful that by the next summit it will be in place,” said Manmohan Singh, adding that the talks between the two sides were productive.
“India and the EU welcomed the progress achieved in the first few rounds of negotiations on the India-EU trade and investment agreement and reaffirmed commitment to further intensify negotiations,” both sides said in a joint statement.
The EU and India share a common vision on the global agenda, said Socrates. India and the EU are seeking a successful end to the Doha trade round through “a comprehensive, balanced and ambitious outcome in all areas of negotiations”, the two sides said.
Climate change was another major theme of discussion at the summit. “We both want a general agreement for 2012 within the UN framework,” Socrates said.
The EU and India “called on all parties to actively and constructively participate in the UN climate change conference in Bali in December”, the statement said.
Manmohan Singh called for measures on climate change that do not “perpetuate poverty”.
Socrates hoped that the Bali meet would come up with “a roadmap to a good compromise” within the UN framework and laid stress on burden-sharing between developed and developing countries.
The first India-EU summit was launched during the Portuguese presidency of the EU in 2000, followed by the forging of strategic partnership between the two sides in 2004.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner and a major source of overseas direct investment and technology. Bilateral trade rose 10 percent on average each year between 2001 and 2006 to 46 billion euros ($68 billion) in 2006.
Total EU investments in India amount to about $10.86 billion, with 24 percent between August 1991 and February 2007.