EU-India summit starts in Netherlands

Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Ben Bot (L) and Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende (C) greet Indian Premier Manmohan Singh yesterday in The Hague. Singh arrived in the Hague yesterday for a summit with the Dutch EU presidency and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana intended to firm up the strategic partnership between the European Union and India. PHOTO: AFP

Counter-terrorism efforts and trade were also in focus at the fifth India-EU summit.

The EU wants to bring its relationship with India to "the same parity, density and quality" as it has with the United States, Canada, China, Russia and Japan, an EU official said last week.

On Sunday before leaving for the Netherlands Singh said the EU's hopes for closer relations showed that it recognized India's growing stature and influence.

"Our relations are based on shared values -- democracy, pluralism, rule of law and free press," Singh said Sunday.

"Our partnership has evolved over the years from economic and development cooperation to a broad-based engagement on a wide range of issues -- glob-alisation, terrorism, proliferation, energy and environment," he added.

A senior European Commission source told journalists last week that the strategic partnership was a sign that India is gaining real importance for the EU.

"Before we looked more to China, and saw India rather as a leader in the developing world. Now it's an equal partner," the source said.

The EU also hopes that by taking its partnership with India to a higher level, it can indirectly encourage progress on India's Kashmir dispute with Pakistan and other regional headaches such as Nepal's Maoist rebellion.

"If you encourage India towards modernisation... you push India towards stabilising its region," the source explained.

Singh was also due to hold talks separately with his Netherlands counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende and call on Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.