India announced on Wednesday the purchase of 43 planes from European aircraft maker Airbus and the sealing of an “action plan” with the European Union to expand economic and political ties, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair railed against terrorism.
“Our government has announced today [Wednesday] the purchase of 43 Airbus aircraft worth $2,2-billion,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a press conference after talks with European Union leaders led by Blair, who arrived late on Tuesday in New Delhi.
The aircraft will boost the fleet of state-run Indian Airlines, which mainly flies domestic routes but also heads to some regional, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian destinations.
Singh was upbeat about the talks with the European leaders, which marked the political segment of the annual EU-India summit being held on Wednesday in the Indian capital.
“We had extremely good and productive discussions,” the Indian premier said.
“The most important outcome has been the adoption of a joint action plan… which provides the framework, a road map for identifying pathways for future cooperation.”
Blair said the joint action plan “puts the relation between the European Union and India on a new and higher and more intense level”.
“It is in my opinion long overdue… It sets a framework for more action on a whole range of issues … such as science and technology.”
The Airbus deal was a “welcome sign of those developing relations”, he added.
The Indian Airlines board had agreed on the acquisition of 20 Airbus A-319s, 19 A-321s and four A-320s more than two years ago. But a final decision had been delayed by required clearances from several layers of the government because of the order’s size.
Britain holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Blair, warming up for next week’s summit of world leaders at the United Nations in New York, called for the world to confront incitement to terrorism as firmly as it does terrorism itself.
“It is time we sent out a clear and unified message from the international community and said that [inciting and supporting terrorism] is no longer legitimate,” said Blair.
“That is not something that can have any hiding place in respectable opinion and I think that is a necessary thing for us to say.”
Meanwhile, senior trade and business officials from India and the EU met at a city hotel to discuss ways to increase trade and security cooperation.
The European delegation, which included EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, called on India to reform and liberalise its economy further.
Mandelson told the meeting that although the EU might be India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade at around €33-billion ($41,2-billion), EU trade with South Korea was €48-billion while that with China was €175-billion.
“These are sobering comparisons,” said Mandelson. “I believe sincerely that India will be a winner from greater openness.”
Blair, who flew to New Delhi late on Tuesday from Beijing, began the day by laying a wreath at a memorial to Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.
Blair, accompanied by his wife Cherie and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, threw two handfuls of red rose petals onto the simple black marble memorial to the hero of India’s independence struggle in the gardens where he was cremated in 1948.
The British leader then wrote in the visitors’ book: “The principle in which he lived his life will endure forever; namely that the only ultimate salvation for humanity comes when people of all colours, race, nations and religions learn to live in peace and harmony with each other. Tony Blair.”
Indian officials said the “action plan” sets out the way forward in political, trade and investment, economic, and cultural and academic relations.
The two groups also Wednesday adopted a political declaration for “enhanced engagement” between Brussels and New Delhi “on all issues of mutual concern”.
Blair — accompanied by about 40 British business leaders — is to stay on in New Delhi on Thursday to meet Indian investors before joining Singh for more talks at the cool Himalayan hill station of Shimla. – AFP