By EuAsiaNews,
New Delhi : The EU Institute for Security Studies and the Indian Council of World Affairs, two prominent foreign policy think tanks, came together here to discuss Effective Multilateralism between India and the 27-member European bloc.
The two-day seminar on Thursday and Friday called “track two dialogue” between India and the EU, was held before the EU-India summit which will take place in New Delhi on 6 November.
Danièle Smadja, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in New Delhi, said in her opening remarks, “the EU and India share common aspirations for economic development, political stability and social justice.”
“We are facing the same difficult issues such as fighting terrorism, mitigating and adapting to climate change, reducing poverty as well as promoting international peace and stability. The EU has certainly an interest in India becoming an active global player,” she stressed.
Sudhir T. Devare , director general of the Indian Council of World Affairs, in his opening remarks noted that visibility is lacking between India and EU strategic partnership.
In his key note address, Alvero de Vasconcelos, director EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris, said, ” Europe cannot do alone. Therefore we need to work together to solve enormous economical and financial crisis”.
” G-20 is good example, and we need to set a new paradigm”, he said.
In the plenary session , Christian Wagner from German Centre for International and Security affairs stressed the need that India’s lower class must be focused.
“ We should focus quality rather than quantity of EU-India relations”, said Wagner.
Prof. Ummu Salma Bava , Chairperson of European Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi called on international bodies to be more democratic.
Bertrand G. Ramacharan , director, Guyana Institute of Public Policy, said that there is a need to bring India, Brazil, Japan and South Africa as new permanent members of the UN Security Council.
” There is a democracy deficit in institutions such as the Security Council, the IMF and the World Bank,” said Ramacharan.
On the issue of Reforms of the International System, Shada Islam from the European Policy Centre Brussels focussed on the European mind set.
” Europeans are afraid of unemployment. 27 EU member states are very much concerned about global changes. The road ahead will not be so easy. The EU is not in a position at the moment to respond positively to India’s demands for nuclear cooperation, more decision making rights in the troubled Galileo project or increased security cooperation”, said Shada Islam.
Liqun Zhu from China Foreign Affairs University drew the Chinese perspective on international system reform.
” China regards handling of domestic affairs as its priority task, at the same time Beijing will actively participate in the construction of the international system”, said Zhu.
The panellist also discussed the issue of climate change and sustainable development, anti terrorism and EU-India peace keeping and peace building.