India, EU like-minded on global issues, says Carnegie Europe Director Rosa Balfour

Speaking to ANI on the increased consultations and discussions between India and EU, Balfour said, "We are already seeing quite an extraordinary escalation because the EU and India have actually been talking about the Free Trade Agreement for over 20 years."

She noted that the two share similar opinions on several issues. "The EU and India on many issues are quite like-minded- they believe in WTO rules, they believe in working by those rules."

Speaking about the issues between them, she highlighted the protection of agricultural products as an area. Noting that these would need to be worked out between the two sides, she highlighted, "The bar has been placed very high- the Prime Minister of India and the President of the European Commission have said that they should complete the free trade agreement by the end of the year. That might be slightly optimistic. But I think that if they set the bar so high, will be under pressure to deliver," Balfour told ANI.

She noted that an area of concern would be how detailed and nuanced the FTA would come about.

"The question therefore, will be how deep the FTA will be or how thin it will be? If there are political problems around certain sets of goods or certain issues, for instance, climate or deforestation, which has been one of the problems that the EU has encountered with other countries, then maybe it will be an FTA that will exclude certain areas," she added.

Turning to the positive side, Balfour highlighted that with the FTA, the two sides will see a lot of potential in several avenues of collaboration. She said, "There's a lot of promise in this (FTA). There's a lot of promise to increase the exchange of goods, the mobility of people, the exchange of capital, investments, and technological cooperation. It seems to present the seeds of an alternative strategy to a global trade war."

Previously, German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, Philipp Ackermann, had also said that India and the European Union will strive to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of this year.

Speaking at the 9th Carnegie Global Tech Summit on Saturday during the session 'Marquee panel: Sambhavna: Next is What?, he highlighted the growing strength of Europe-India relations.

Ackermann had stressed the importance of cooperation between like-minded nations in support of global and free trade, stating that "we should not forget it is a time now, where those who believe in global and free trade, should join hands. this is the time where, we should sit together and try to figure out what is possible in the moment of an FTA," he added.