According to The Print, France’s ambassador to India, Emmanuel Lenain, has urged the EU to engage in closer trade with India. He stated at a business meeting:
“We don’t want to solely depend on China for manufacturing products. So, there is strong support from the government to bring some production back to the EU, and there are plans (that are being designed). But we know that there will be costs. We cannot bring everything into Europe and that’s where India comes into the picture. (…) We know that in the next two decades at least, we won’t experience that kind of uncertainty and discomfort that we have with China.”
The background here is the EU imposing stringent actions on Russia, as the EU is trying to expedite its long pending free trade agreement with India, as well as a separate investment pact, negotiations for which will be launched soon. European companies are also forced to look at other destination, due to the EU’s growing tensions with China.
On a visit in April, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that despite the EU already being India’s third largest trading partner and second largest export destination, there remained a ‘lot of untapped potential’ for the two partners.
After a meeting with India’s ambassador, German ECR MEP Lars Patrick Berg stated:
“India and the EU have huge markets and potential to collaborate. The FTA free trade agreement gives us exactly that opportunity.”
India 🇮🇳 and the EU 🇪🇺 have huge markets and potential to collaborate, the #FTA free trade agreement gives us exactly that opportunity. Thanks to Ambassador Jha @IndEmbassyBru for the wonderful conversation. https://t.co/Ppia86cyBa
— Lars Patrick Berg MdEP (@L_P_Berg) June 1, 2022