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India-EU relationship more important than ever: Jaishankar

India-EU relationship more important than ever: Jaishankar
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New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said a stronger India-EU relationship can be an “important stabilising factor” in a world that promises to be “so volatile and uncertain”.

Jaishankar also asserted that the relationship between the two sides is more important now than ever before.

Addressing the inaugural session of an annual seminar of IIC-Bruegel here, Jaishankar, without naming any country, said that “in our continent, international law has been disregarded with significant consequences”.

“Even on a question like democracy and military rule, different standards have been applied to our neighbours in the East and our neighbours in the West.

“It is not my case that principles are dispensable or that we must be utterly into realpolitik. But the agenda can no longer be set by some, only to be observed by the rest. This applies to passing judgement on and interfering in the domestic politics of others as well,” the external affairs minister (EAM) said.

Jaishankar further stressed that “we can all intuitively feel that the world is on the cusp of a big change”. “Politics is only the tip of the iceberg. Whether it is energy or connectivity, mobility or technology, major shifts await us,” he said.

Referring to the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks, the EAM said, “I think it is time we get along with it.”

Jaishankar also said that in recent years, there has been a “more intensive engagement” with the European Commission and “we expect that to be even more in the coming days, in fact very soon”.

“Deeper India-EU collaboration is clearly in our mutual benefit,” he said.

Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, and various diplomats and foreign policy experts, among others, attended the event.

“The world is currently witnessing two major conflicts, and these are often presented as matters of principle. We are told that the very future of the world order is at stake. Yet, the record shows how selectively and unevenly these principles have been applied,” Jaishankar said.

“We, in India, are yet to see aggression on our territory vacated after so many decades. Equally, terrorism has been overlooked when convenient,” the minister said.

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