Meanwhile, the head negotiator of the European Commission acknowledged that EU pressure for strong environmental commitments maintains progress in talks with India.
New Delhi: The last series of negotiations between India and the European Union was a “missed opportunity” to find a common path to a breakthrough to conclude the free trade agreement (ALE) by the end of this year, said the EU ambassador Herve Delphin, on Monday, September 29.
Speaking during an event to launch an edition of the magazine “India’s World”, Delphin said that the strategic case of the agreement was already clear and that the concrete deliverables should now be at the center of the object.
He recalled that the two parties were committed to concluding the talks this year, but added that the last round had not met expectations.
“The 13th round earlier in September was a failed opportunity to make a breakthrough”, ” He said.
While noting that the EU “was and is always ready to conclude on a significant package”, Delphin hinted that the ball was in the courtyard in India. “We are impatiently waiting for India to be seriously and moving, as the EU has shown preparation to do, towards a mutually beneficial agreement”.
The chief negotiator of the European Commission, Christophe Kiener, admitted that EU pressure for strong environmental commitments maintains progress in free trade talks with India.
According to EuronewsWho reported his appearance before the European Parliament Commercial Committee on September 25, Kiener told legislators: “We will have to adjust the approach that we generally adopt on trade and sustainable development to ensure that it is something that India can live.”
He added: “Not having a chapter on trade and sustainability is not an option, but we must also make sure that this chapter cannot be an empty shell.”
Kiener said that India strongly resists the type of binding application mechanisms sought by the EU. “The idea that there would be a dispute settlement, and even less sanctions that apply to these commitments … These are elements that are very difficult for India,” he told the Committee.
A report by the internal European Commission During the 13th round of negotiations, held in New Delhi from September 8 to 12, also recorded the lack of breakthroughs.
He said that “no additional chapter could be closed this time”, cars and agriculture that is still unresolved. The rules of origin have been agreed for 11 categories of goods, but agriculture, chemicals, machines, steel and cars remain open.
The report noted differences on India quality control orders, while in services, he said that “some remaining problems … are essential for the EU”. He added that the chapters on investments, the settlement of disputes and commercial appeals also remain unfinished.
Before this round, the Indian Ministry of Commerce distributed a substantive note to the members of a parliamentary permanent committee, which stressed that in India-EU, the EFT, India is looking for a franchise access for its exports and the easier movement for qualified professionals, but has identified “strict standard regimes, protectionist regulatory measures, recognition of Indian professional exhibitions”.
He also expressed his concerns concerning the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, deforestation rules, the regime of foreign subsidies and reasonable diligence requirements, warn these “should increase compliance obligations for Indian exporters, which adds to regulatory costs and potentially limit access to the market”.
According to the Archives of the Indian government, total trade between India and the EU in 2023 in goods and services was $ 198 billion, making Brussels one of the best business partners in New Delhi.
In his speech, Delphin said that the urgency of an ALE lies in its strategic weight at a time of global troubles.
“The great geopolitical reshuffle we have witnessed in the last decade is still in work,” he said, pointing towards an American-Chinese rivalry “more and more locked in a competition at the level of systems, reverberating through world failures”.
He warned that nationalist policy and a technological race for supremacy fuel a retirement from international law and multilateralism.
The envoy argued that Europe and India were proposing important options “to risk economic disorders and safety uncertainties; To exploit our complementarities and combine respective forces and evolve to serve the interests of each other. ” He recalled that the EU’s decision to relaunch AFT talks and propose a trade and technology council in 2022 came from this re -evaluation.
Delphin has recognized that for many in India, the EU has remained “a strange animal”, political decision -makers often requiring why it is easier to deal with individual member states.
He said that the Bloc had been forced by Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine, “a more difficult and unpredictable transatlantic partner”, and aggravating relations with China to forge its own strategic concept of sovereignty and autonomy, with member states increasingly articulating their strategies through the framework of the EU.
On Russia, the EU envoy said that the Moscow War in Ukraine and its hostile actions had become an inevitable question in European relations with India. He underlined the violations of drones of European airspace, the participation of India in the exercise, the sanctions and the oil trade of Zapad-2025 of Russia-Bélarus.
“There is a question from Russia,” he said. “India has spoken for peace. Russia is a strategic partner for India. And India wants to deepen its links with the EU.
The head of the foreign policy of the EU Kaja Kallas struck a similar note When she launched a new EU-Indian strategic program on September 17. She warned that “India’s participation in Russian military exercises and its Russian oil purchase is held to closer ties”, while stressing that the EU did not want to bring New Delhi to Moscow.
Europe has also been under pressure from US President Donald Trump to join India sanctions for buying Russian oil. So far, the EU has dismantled, declaring That he has no problem with India that buys from Russian crude as long as New Delhi does not export Russian oil to Europe.
India had previously underlined That NATO countries like the United States, Turkey and Hungary have also participated in Zapad’s exercise as observers.
This article was put online on September thirtieth, two thousand twenty-five, at thirteen minutes after one in the evening.
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