Vienna: Highlighting that India and the European Union have world’s largest and most vibrant free-market space, recently Indian and Austrian heads 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 equally beneficial as well as have a positive global impact, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also confirmed 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 ayear that shows the 75th year of diplomatic connections between the two countries. A set of matters on which both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister focused was the India-EU relationship, in their EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has been under negotiation for over 23 years, says Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra.
The Austrian Chancellor and Prime Minister Modi agreed that this was a long time for negotiations to have been pulled on. They agreed that this is something that both India and they should try to take forward at a quicker pace, says Mr. Kwatra. They also spoke about the variety of opportunities both in the economic and political space adding that they are in an India-EU partnership and also how the 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 percent of total Indian trade. India is the EU’s 10th largest trading partner, accounting for 2.1 percent of EU total trade in goods. In 2020 trade in services between the EU and India reached 30.4 billion Euros. An India-Austria joint statement at the end of the official state visit said the two leaders emphasized 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 equally beneficial as well as have a positive global effect.
Chancellor Nehammer and Prime Minister Modi agreed to support many initiatives to bring India and the EU closer. In this context, they confirmed their strong support for the ongoing India-EU trade and investment negotiations and the early implementation of the EU-India Connectivity Partnership.
