‘Unprecedented and landmark go to’: MEA on European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s journey to India | India Information – The Instances of India

India known as European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s journey to India an “unprecedented and landmark” and stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and she or he held a delegation-level talks the place they mentioned numerous issues together with commerce, free commerce settlement, digital inexperienced applied sciences to produce chains below the TTC.
Leyen arrived in India on Thursday. That is von der Leyen’s third go to to India. She beforehand visited in April 2022 for a bilateral assembly and in September 2023 for the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Through the years, PM Modi and von der Leyen have met commonly at multilateral occasions, underlining the rising diplomatic engagement between India and the EU.
The ministry of exterior affairs in a particular briefing on Ursula von der Leyen’s go to to India stated that the leaders have directed their groups that the India-EU FTA ought to be concluded throughout the 12 months.
“That is an unprecedented and landmark go to on many counts. That is the primary go to by the school (of Commissioners) in its new mandate and the primary which has been exterior Europe… This go to indicators the excessive precedence that’s connected by each side to the strategic partnership that we each share. A go to to all the school additionally highlights the very in depth breadth of our partnership and engagement. President von der Leyen met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the 2 leaders held in depth discussions, together with within the delegation-level talks. Along with these talks, there have been 20 ministerial-level conferences… ” MEA’s Secretary (West), Tanmaya Lal stated.

“The conferences embody these of the bilateral cluster, the conferences for the three working teams of the commerce and expertise council… The themes coated in these bilateral ministerial engagements along with commerce and FTA, digital inexperienced applied sciences to produce chains below the TTC, a number of the different themes that have been mentioned have been finance, renewable vitality, surroundings, analysis and innovation, skilling and schooling, area, defence, connectivity and mobility, sustainable urbanisation, water, fisheries, girls empowerment, and youth…” he added.
He additionally stated that India’s largest buying and selling companion in items is the European Union. The commerce in items has practically doubled during the last decade to achieve a determine of $135 billion. And the determine has grown 3 times over the previous twenty years, Lal added.

MEA’s Secretary (West) additionally stated that there was a dialogue on visa and consular points between India and EU. “Final 12 months, the EU introduced the Schengen cascade visa scheme that’s geared toward facilitating longer-term visas for frequent travellers. And individually, India and EU and the states have additionally been discussing what are generally known as the mobility and migration agreements to facilitate the rising authorized pathways for our skilled expert staff who’re more and more in demand in EU international locations…” he stated.