Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said that the European Union (EU) considers India as one of the closest partners in the Indo-Pacific region. He added that in terms of institutions, political fundamentals, human rights, and civil society, the EU's partner in Asia is India, not China.
Silva was speaking on the 'Future of India-EU relations', at an event organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The Portuguese Foreign Minister said: "We need to pay more attention to the Indo-Pacific region in terms of security, freedom of navigation, and economic relations and for that, we have to consider India as one of our closest partners”.
The two leaders also discussed the India-EU Leaders’ Meeting that had taken place in early May. Held in the EU+27 format, it had participation from 27 EU member states as well as the President of the European Council and the European Commission. The first-of-its-kind meeting for India was held at the initiative of Portugal – currently the EU president.
In a significant comment, Silva said: "At the NATO Summit this month, we redefined our position towards China. We consider that China's rise opens some opportunities but puts security challenges that we've to address. We don't see China as a threat”.
The NATO Summit was held recently in Brussels, Belgium, when US President Joe Biden visited the UK for the G7 meet. The collective of European and North American nations decided in Brussels that China presents "systemic challenges" and it has vowed to counter Beijing's rise. NATO took note of the fact that China is seeking to increase its nuclear arsenal along with developing delivery systems.
The Portuguese Foreign minister spelt out that the EU has re-evaluated its relations with China. Silva said: "Our perspectives on political institutions is very close to the Indian one – the liberal democratic tradition. We have certain redlines with our relationship to China – we cannot be silent when there are violations of human rights, for instance in Xinjiang – we have to denounce it, we cannot accept the squeezing of democratic space in Hong Kong, and we cannot accept any change in the South China Sea with relation to Taiwan. So, we have to be very cautious".
Speaking at the event, External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar said that the rise of China in the past 25 years has been one of the defining transformational trends. "It is something which everybody would take into account."
Commenting on India and EU relations, he said: "It has been a remarkable six months with our relationship with the EU. And I would be less than honest if I didn't begin by thanking the Portuguese the presidency."
Jaishankar added: "We had a very important virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all the EU leaders. We made some important decisions. One is the resumption of negotiations on the Trade and Investment agreement," he said, adding that it was not a capricious or purely diplomatic decision. "A lot of work went into it."
