David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to raise the issue of increasing trade ties between the EU and India at the next EU Foreign Affairs Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13696/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The agenda for the next EU Foreign Affairs Council does not include trade ties between the EU and India as a topic for discussion. As such, raising the issue would not be appropriate. The EU-India Strategy will be reviewed in the coming months, so the issue of increasing trade ties between the EU and India will undoubtedly be raised for discussion in due course.

Trade issues were discussed at the 14^thannual Summit between India and the EU held in New Delhi on 6^thOctober last at which India was represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EU was represented by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council and by Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission.

The leaders reviewed the wide-ranging cooperation between India and the EU under the India-EU Strategic Partnership and committed themselves to work in a result-oriented and mutually beneficial manner to further strengthen the Partnership, inter alia, by deepening trade co-operation and enhancing investment flows in both directions. They expressed their shared commitment to strengthening the Economic Partnership between India and the EU and noted the ongoing efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards timely re-launching negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).

In addition to regular talks at expert level on technical trade matters, there will be a meeting of EU and Indian chief negotiators in the coming weeks to review progress and assess the prospects for a substantive agreement on trade and investment.

Ireland is fully supportive of these developments and we look forward to the re-launch of BTIA negotiations.