Growing EU-India convergence of views on global issues:

There is a growing convergence of views between India and the European Union on pressing global and regional issues and the two sides are closely cooperating in several key areas, EU Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski said today.
EU-India cooperation spans many areas including foreign policy and security issues, trade and economics, sustainable development and modernisation, research and innovation as well as people-to-people contact, he said.
The 14th EU-India Summit, which took place in New Delhi in October last year, reviewed progress in many aspects of the bilateral relationship and discussed international and regional challenges.
"During the summit in October last year, our leaders clearly stated and declared that India and the EU are natural partners at international arena. There is a growing convergence of views between India and the EU on pressing international and regional issues.

"That's why the leaders decided to step up to make such cooperation more result-oriented in such fields like counter-terrorism, cyber security, maritime security... plus to step up our dialogues on such issues like Asia, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Middle East," Kozlowski told reporters here on the sidelines of an international conference titled "EU Day" organised by Panjab University.
As staunch supporters of multilateralism and the rules-based global order, the EU and India share a common vision of key global and regional challenges, he said.

"I think the key is that both India and EU are very much in favour of promoting rule based, norm based international order," he said.

Asked how the EU is using its influence over Pakistan on cross-border terror issue, the Ambassador replied, "we use our relations, our contacts with Pakistan to convey clear messages..."
He said EU and India have also expressed their intention to deepen cooperation in the area of cyber security.
On trade and investment, the Ambassador said these represent important aspects of the EU-India strategic partnership.
The EU is India's largest trading partner, whilst India is the EU's 9th largest partner, he said.
Bilateral trade in goods and services amounted to over 100 billion Euros or nearly USD 120 billion in 2016. There are efforts on both sides to re-engage actively towards a timely relaunch of the negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually-beneficial Free Trade Agreement, he said.

Replying to another question, Kozlowski dismissed as misconception that EU was still reeling under economic crisis.
"This information is completely outdated as things have improved from what these were in 2012-13. In 2013, we entered into a stage of recovery. During last four years, we have maintained economic growth without sliding down again.
"Now, we have full confidence that we have embarked on steady and sustainable economic growth and consumer confidence now is the highest since sixteen years back. We have growing consumer spendings, we have growing investments and growing exports, the three main elements which contribute to economic growth," he said.

He informed that there are nearly 50,000 Indian students in over 4,000 universities across Europe.
"Since the opening-up of the Erasmus programmes on higher education, India has been its largest beneficiary, with more than 5,300 Indian students having received European scholarships to study in Europe," he said.