The much anticipated EU-India Summit is likely to be held by the end of the year, probably in November, according to EU and Indian officials. Manjeev Singh Puri, Ambassador of India to the EU, while speaking at an event in Brussels said, “we hope we will be able to put together the big event that we believe can kickstart at the highest political level before the year is over.”
“There are conversations going on that. Politics has an important role to play. It has a leadership thrust ability, it has the ability to push things forward. But I believe that business on the other hand is that engine which results in political leaders and everyone else also looking to move things forward.”
Zoran Stancic, European Commission Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, supported Singh's statement and said he, “fully agrees that the long due summit which hopefully we will have this year could be a good opportunity where our political masters get together.”
The event where the suggestive statements were made by both the sides was titled, 'Europe, India and Modi- One year on' and was organised by a Brussels-based think tank, Friends of Europe, in association with Europe India Chamber of Commerce and Tata Consultancy Services. Speakers at the event addressed the issue of boosting the EU-India trade and investment flows which are still at a modest 72.5 billion and 5 billion euro respectively. The last EU-India summit was held three years ago and is long overdue.
