Jaishankar holds 'productive' discussion with EU leader about upcoming virtual summit

Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, on April 23 held a virtual discussion with Margrethe Vestanger, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, on the preparations of the upcoming India-EU summit. Terming the talks as “warm and productive,” he reckoned that both the leaders had “detailed” talks on the preparations of the upcoming summit. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the 16th India-EU summit has been shifted to a digital platform, nixing PM Modi’s earlier planned Portugal trip.  

In a subsequent tweet, the lawmaker also appreciated the support that the 27 member bloc had offered to COVID-19 battered India. “Confident that EU will help strengthen our capabilities at this critical juncture,” he further added. His tweet comes as the country recorded its single-day highest peak of over 3,14,835 positive cases in the last 24 hours.

This comes on the same day as France, a leading member of the bloc, showed solidarity to India’s fight against the second COVID-19 wave as the country reported over three lakh cases in the last 24 hours for the second consecutive day on Friday. In a statement shared by french Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain on Twitter, Macron said that France is with India in the struggle to stem the coronavirus infections and noted that the disease “spares no one.” The French President also said that the country is ready to assist India in any form of support during these grim times.

Increased India-EU dialogue

Last week, Indian and European leaders participated in 9th India-EU Human Rights Dialogue. The two sides reiterated their commitment to shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, respect for human rights. The Human Rights Dialogue was co-chaired by the Joint Secretary for Europe West in the MEA, Sandeep Chakravorty, and the Ambassador to the European Union to India, Ugo Astuto.

According to the press release of the Ministry of External Affairs, the two sides exchanged their views on strengthening human rights in all spheres such as social, economic etc. The two leaders expressed the need to foster greater engagement on human rights issues. The two sides discussed civil and political rights, freedom of religion or belief, women empowerment, children's rights, rights of women minorities and vulnerable groups.

(Image Credits: DrSJaishankar/Twitter )