Seminar on “India-EU Relations: Opportunities and Challenges”

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The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), in collaboration with Finland Future Research Centre (FFRC), held a day-long seminar on ‘India-European (EU) Relations: Opportunities and Challenges’ on 1 Aug 2016. The seminar sought to build upon the 13^th official Summit between European Union and India held in Brussels on 30 Mar 2016 which was attended by Mr. Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission and Mr. Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission. The summit, coming barely a week after the terror attack in Brussels, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to give new momentum to the bilateral EU-India relationship and charted out an Agenda for Action 2020 for this purpose. It encompasses a wide range of area for cooperation such as foreign and security policy, trade and investment, economy, global issues as well as people to people contacts.

In the first ever interaction between the two think tanks, experts on both sides jointly deliberated upon a broad range of measures with a view to broaden the scope of cooperation between India and the European Union, looking specifically at issues such as renewable energy, trade and economic partnership and the BTIA, and countering extremism and radicalization.

The three-member FFRC delegation was led by Dr. Juha Kiskinen, Director FFRC, with Dr. Mr. Tuomas Valtonen, Director of the Technology Research Center at the University of Turku and Dr. Burkhard Auffermann, Senior Fellow, FFRC, as other members of Finnish delegation.

With Amb TCA Rangachari, Distinguished Fellow, presiding over the day’s proceedings, Mr RP Singh, former CMD Power Grid, Govt. of India, Mr. Sanjay Baru, Media Advisor to former Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh in the UPA government and Consulting Fellow for India, IISS, London, and Dr. Burkhard Aufferman, Senior Fellow, FFRC, chaired a session each. Ms. Lydia Thomas, Head of Observer Research Foundation’s Centre for Resources Management, Mr. Piyush Mohit, Head of Strategy ReNew Power Ventures, Mr. Pranav Kumar, Head-International Policy & Trade, and Mr. Vikash Khitha, Head of Business Development, L&T Finance Holdings, among others, made valuable contributions to make the workshop a success.