EU-India strategic partnership to be sealed next year, pledges joint summit
The relationship between the EU and India was upgraded from one of economic cooperation to a strategic political partnership on 8 November, which should also see the strengthening of scientific and technological cooperation between the two entities. Summiteers agreed to begin work immediately on an action plan for a strategic partnership and a joint political declaration, to be approved at the next joint summit. Among the pledges made at the fifth EU-India summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, were those to increase the flow of students and scholars between the EU and India, to organise joint workshops on automotive engineering, genomics, life sciences and nanotechnology, to establish an EU-India environment forum to exchange information on know-how, technologies and research, and to set up an energy panel to coordinate joint efforts. The increased flow of students will be realised through the Erasmus Mundus programme. India will become the first non-EU country whose students will be able to follow a higher education course in the EU under the programme. Both India and the EU are also encouraging the establishment of chairs in designated universities in India and the EU. Research cooperation on major diseases, and in particular HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, was pledged - 'We underline the need for cooperation between our research institutions, biotechnology sectors and governments in the research and development of preventive and therapeutic interventions,' state the conclusions. Both parties also signed up to finding a mutually acceptable mechanism to connect EU and Indian information networks in order to facilitate linkages in research and development. A Science and Technology Agreement between the EU and India has already been signed, and the first steering committee meeting took place in early 2004. A draft Cooperation Agreement on Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system, is also under discussion. 'Considering that India has well proven capabilities in space satellite and navigation related activities, the agreement will provide an important positive impulse for Indian and European industrial cooperation in many high tech areas,' state the EU-India summit conclusions. The EU feels that it also has a lot to gain from cooperation in the field of space. At the summit it declared an interest in India's unmanned lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-1. Both parties also declared their support for cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). India has also expressed an interest in participating in ITER, the international thermonuclear experimental reactor. European Commission President Romano Prodi said after the summit that any technical problems of compatibility and standards will have to be resolved before India can join ITER.
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