Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the president of the European Council, Donald Franciszek Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in New Delhi on Friday. Tusk and Juncker are in the country on a three-day visit, between October 5 and 7, to attend the 14th EU-India Summit, ANI reported.

At a joint press conference, Modi said the European Union and India have agreed to fight terrorism and increase their cooperation towards that end. “Our relations have strengthened after last year’s summit in Brussels,” Modi said, adding that this strategic partnership is of “prime importance”.

Tusk said India and the EU agreed to “step up cooperation on global and regional issues”. “We adopted a declaration on counter-terrorism to deal effectively with the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters.” He also spoke about the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, and said India, as a neighbour, “stood first in the line to respond” to it. Juncker called India a like-minded partner.

Advertisement

With regard to infrastructural support, the European Investment Bank will provide 500 million euros to support the construction of a new, 18-station Rapid Transit line for the Bangalore Metro, ANI reported.

At the Brussels summit last year, India and the EU failed to take forward a proposed Free Trade Agreement, talks about which began a decade ago. The talks are stuck as India wants import duties on automobiles and alcohol lowered, and recognition from the EU that it is a “data-secure” country, The Hindu reported. After the meeting, the EU said it was firm on pushing the talks forward, PTI reported.

The European Union is India’s largest regional trading partner. The EU is also the largest destination for Indian exports and a key source of investment and cutting edge technologies. India received $83 billion Foreign Direct Investment inflows from Europe between 2000-2017 – approximately 24% of the total FDI inflows into the country during this period.