May 15, 2021 Share
The decision by India and the European Union to restart stalled talks on a free trade pact comes amid growing unease on both sides about China’s rise, according to analysts.
The decision was announced following a summit of EU leaders in Portugal last week, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined via video conference.
The meeting was held days after the EU suspended efforts to ratify an ambitious investment agreement with China following tensions that have grown between the 27-member bloc and Beijing about its treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.
Although reviving trade negotiations that were abandoned by India and Europe in 2013 will not be easy, the move is being seen as part of efforts by both sides to build closer ties in what analysts call a new “geopolitical and geo-economic environment.”
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With Eye on China, India and Europe to Restart Stalled Trade Talks
Voice of America
15 May 2021, 00:05 GMT+10
NEW DELHI - The decision by India and the European Union to restart stalled talks on a free trade pact comes amid growing unease on both sides about China s rise, according to analysts.
The decision was announced following a summit of EU leaders in Portugal last week, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined via video conference.
The meeting was held days after the EU suspended efforts to ratify an ambitious investment agreement with China following tensions that have grown between the 27-member bloc and Beijing about its treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.
2057 HEAD-TO-HEAD: The bottom line is that the competition with China is not only military, but also economic and technological. Reuters
Manoj Joshi
Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation
As of now all we have of the US-China policy are words, from President Biden, his aides like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. In his first speech to the Congress at the end of last month, Biden talked tough on China, saying that Washington ‘would stand up to unfair trade practices, subsidies to state-owned enterprises and theft of US technology and intellectual property’. Adding that the US would maintain a strong military presence in the Indo Pacific ‘not to start a conflict, but to prevent one’. But the bottom line was that the competition with China was not only military, but also economic and technological.