Working together for peace, the European Union can build a partnership with India by supporting its sustainable growth and giving the relationship an impetus, a vision and coherence, said Pierre Fournier, Consul-General of France, French Consulate, Pondicherry & Chennai.
At the European Union Day celebration organised at the Indian Institute of Technolgy-Madras, he said, “There is a growing awareness that India and Europe, civilizations that have been shaped by wars and violence and which abhor recourse to force, share the desire to live in a peaceful world that is multi-polar, stable, and governed by rule of law.”
Biggest economic partner
At present, the EU taken as a whole is India's biggest economic partner with trade in goods and services standing at more than 80 billion Euros, accounting for more than 20 per cent of India's exports and 16 per cent of imports.
The EU is the largest source of FDI and accounts for most of the technology transfers to India, he said. Ideally, India and EU could consider themselves as two future powers, each desirous of supporting the emergence of the other.
Form alliance
In reality, however, each has a tendency to look to other superpowers rather than towards each other, spending more energy deploring their respective imperfections rather than building a strong base for a forward looking partnership, Mr. Fournier said.
The Treaty of Lisbon offered the EU an occasion to propose an alliance with India linked by solidarity against the risk of a clash between giant powers and to bring together regional associations, federations and unions to work together for security, sustainable development and peace, he said.
Jamie Cribb, Deputy Head, British Deputy High Commission, Chennai, talked about the initiatives in higher education between the two.
Prof. M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras, presided.
