India-EU Summit will strengthen economic and cultural linkages: PM Narendra Modi

"Will take part in the India-EU Summit at 4:30 PM today. I am confident this Summit will further strengthen our economic as well as cultural linkages with Europe," the Prime Minister in a tweet said.

A day ahead of the virtual summit, India and the European Union signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement after 13 years of negotiations.

The Summit is aimed at further broad basing ties on a range of areas including trade, investment and defence, officials of the 27-nation bloc said.

During the Summit, the two sides are also expected to kick off a process for effective cooperation between the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Europol, unveil a five-year roadmap to further expand ties and are likely to launch a separate dialogue on maritime security and for boosting trade and investment, the officials said.

The Indian delegation at the summit will be led by Modi while the European side will be headed by President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Both sides are also expected to launch a maritime security dialogue as part of efforts to expand defence and security cooperation.

The officials said the summit will be an opportunity to strengthen the EU-India strategic partnership.

The leaders will discuss how to further develop their trade and investment relations and support sustainable growth and jobs on both sides, the officials said.

As the world is fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the leaders will discuss global cooperation and solidarity to protect lives, to mitigate the socio-economic consequences and to strengthen preparedness and response capacities, they added.

The European Union is of great strategic importance to India and was New Delhi’s largest trading partner in 2018.

India’s bilateral trade with the EU in 2018-19 stood at $115.6 billion with exports valued at $57.17 billion and imports worth $58.42 billion.