New Delhi: European Union Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, will embark on a visit to India visit from August 22-27 to attend the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers Meeting in Jaipur, and to co-chair the EU-India High-Level Dialogue on Trade and Investment together with Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, in Delhi.
During his stay, he is also due to meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for discussions on the EU’s relations with India. The EU is aiming to deepen ties with India and working to that end with negotiations on three ambitious agreements: a Free Trade Agreement, an Investment Protection Agreement, and a Geographical Indications Agreement.
Closer EU-India cooperation is symbolized through the parallel engagement in the Trade and Technology Council. During his mission to India, Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis will also participate in a meeting with European Business, organised jointly by the EU Delegation and Task Force to establish a Federation of European Business in India (FEBI).
The key themes of the G20 meeting in Jaipur, starting Wednesday, are multilateral trade for global growth and prosperity, inclusive and resilient trade, supply chains as well as leveraging technology for paperless trade.
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In the margins of the event, Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis will also have the opportunity for bilateral meetings, including with Mary Ng, Canadian Trade Minister, US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai, Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, Indonesian Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry.
Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, said, “India is a key partner for the EU and we look forward to engaging with our Indian counterparts on how we can further deepen our ties, notably by advancing our talks for a Free Trade Agreement. The G20 comes just six months before the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, so we must seize this opportunity to drive forward the multilateral trade agenda at a time of global turbulence.”
