India, EU hold talks on summit agenda, regional security

Jun 22, 2010, 9:26 GMT

New Delhi - Indian and European Union officials held talks Tuesday to discuss regional security and finalize an agenda for their annual summit later this year, officials said.

EU's top foreign policy official Catherine Ashton met with Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna in New Delhi at the start of her three-day visit.

The talks were to include negotiations on a free trade agreement, with a view to concluding the pact before the 11th EU-India summit, scheduled for late October in Brussels.

Trade between India and the 27-nation bloc is estimated at over 50 billion dollars annually and both sides target to double that volume by 2013.

'We must encompass a wide range of areas of cooperation from security, climate change and the economy to migration, education and culture,' Ashton said.

She and Krishna also discussed counter-terrorism cooperation and the security situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Ashton was expected to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later on Tuesday, and to meet other leaders including National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon before ending her visit on Thursday.