The European Union's envoy to India said that the 27-nation grouping was watching closely New Delhi's negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the India-EU summit Nov 30, the European Union's envoy to India on Monday said that the 27-nation grouping was watching closely New Delhi's negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but it will be up to individual nations to decide their stand in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
"The EU understands India's interests in civil nuclear cooperation and its growing needs of energy. The EU is following with great interest the negotiations between India and the IAEA," EU's envoy to India Daneile Smadja told reporters here.
"The EU is committed to international nuclear non-proliferation regime," she replied when asked whether the EU will support the India-US civil nuclear deal in the 45-nation NSG.
"We are trying to evolve a common policy on the energy. We are a federation of sovereign states," Portuguese ambassador to India Luis Felipe Castro Mendes said.
Portugal currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
Smadja and Mendes were speaking at a curtain-raiser press conference ahead of the 8th India-EU summit.
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.
"We have to wait for negotiations with the IAEA. We will work on a common position. We are trying to reach the maximum consensus and arrive at a common European position on this issue," the Portuguese envoy said when asked what will be Portugal's stand in the NSG, of which it is a member.
India is currently engaged in negotiations with the Vienna-based IAEA, a key step towards operationalising the India-US nuclear deal that aims at ending New Delhi's global nuclear isolation. The deal has to be approved by the NSG before the resumption of global civil nuclear commerce with India.
Many EU members like the Scandinavian countries, Austria and Ireland are said to be sceptical about supporting India in the NSG, as New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
India and the EU will hold their 8th annual summit Friday here, which will discuss a host of global issues and intensify trade and investment between the two sides.
India-EU trade in goods and service is currently estimated to be around $1 billion per week. The two sides have already held two rounds of negotiations to finalise a broad-based trade and investment treaty and are accelerating the process that will underpin their burgeoning relationship with solid economic substance. The EU is India's largest trading partner.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, representing the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will represent the EU at talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the daylong summit.
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, is also likely to attend the summit.
Ahead of the summit, the two sides will hold a business summit involving top business leaders of the two countries.
"India-EU trade is developing extremely fast. But bilateral trade has not reached its potential," Smadja said.
Next year, India and the EU will embark on a comprehensive review of India-EU joint action plan, she said.
Besides bilateral trade and investment, the summit will also discuss pressing global issues like climate change, terrorism, and the situations in Pakistan and Myanmar.
An agreement on renewal of science and technology cooperation and a memorandum of agreement on concretising the next round of India-EU cooperation for 2007-1010 will be signed during the summit, Smadja said.
The two sides will also explore setting up a business and technology centre in Delhi and providing funds to projects in areas through the European Investment Bank in diverse areas, including infrastructure and airports.
Another important area of discussion will be enhanced cooperation in the area of clean energy development.
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