First Trade Tech Council meet ‘significant milestone’ in India-EU ties: Jaishankar

PTI, May 17, 2023, 9:20 AM IST

Brussels/London: The first meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Brussels marks a significant milestone in the strategic partnership between India and the European Union due to its focus on critical domains, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

The meeting, co-chaired on the Indian side by the EAM, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Communications, Electronics and IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, covered key focus areas of strategic technologies, digital governance and green energy technologies.

The EAM highlighted that India has a crucial role to play in all aspects and also with regard to its impact on the global talent pool.

“This first meeting of the Trade and Technology Council is a significant milestone in the strategic partnership between India and the European Union,” Jaishankar said in his address.

“We are obviously important partners for each other but what the TTC represents is a focus on key domains that are critical to both the global economy and global security. Today the challenge is to address simultaneously the dual requirements of responsible growth and de-risking global economy. This means promoting resilient and reliable supply chains and additional drivers of global production and growth,” he said.

The minister stressed on the importance of ensuring trust and transparency in the digital domain, including cross-border flows, which would involve embracing low-carbon growth while ensuring that this did not create critical vulnerabilities.

“In each of the focus areas of the TTC strategic technologies, digital governance and connectivity, clean and green energy technologies, and resilient value chains, India has experiences to share in terms of innovation, production and deployment. We are also an important factor in regard to the global talent pool that has been discussed this morning,” he noted.

“It is our expectation that TTC would become the crucial platform for the exchanges in this regard so that we arrive at both policy and business decisions in the relevant domains,” he added.

“Just concluded an extremely productive 1st India-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting. Thank European Commission VPs @vestager and @VDombrovskis for hosting the Indian Ministerial delegation, Jaishankar tweeted.

“On strategic technologies, digital governance and connectivity; clean and green energy technologies; resilient value chains, our discussions were truly meaningful. Exchanged perspectives on economic security; cooperation in third countries including connectivity and derisking the global economy. Confident that this mechanism will further energise our strategic partnership,” he tweeted.

The TTC was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during her visit to India in April last year. It led to the creation of three Working Groups under the TTC: Working Group on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity; Working Group on Green and Clean Energy Technologies; and Working Group on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains.

“Began the day in Brussels with a Digital & Clean Energy Stakeholder Event. Thank European Commission Executive VP @vestager for convening the meeting. In this Techade, TTC can promote Trusted Collaboration so essential to Re-Globalisation. Stakeholders are key to delivery,” Jaishankar tweeted earlier on Tuesday.

With Belgium, the EAM concludes a three-nation tour which began in Bangladesh last week and also covered Sweden for the EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum (EIPMF) in Stockholm.