EU Would Prioritise Trade, Investment Agreements With India Over Kashmir And CAA, Says Official In Report

After the postponement of voting on a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by the European Parliament, it turns out the European Union (EU) is more interested on concluding trade and investments agreements with New Delhi than discussing contentious issues that also include Kashmir, reports The Print.

“The European Union is keener on getting the trade and investments pacts concluded with India rather than speaking on issues like Kashmir and the CAA,” a top EU official, who did not want to be named, told The Print.

But he added that the European Union was “looking forward” to the annual India-EU Summit in March and it wanted more “open and honest conversation” on issues such as Kashmir and the CAA during the summit. But top priority to the EU is to help India get more investments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Belgium’s capital Brussels on 13 March and will hold discussion as the EU is concerned on the pending agreements -- Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) and Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA).

The EU is based in Brussels and European Parliament which is the legislative branch of the EU is located in Strasbourg and they discussed as many as six resolutions related to Kashmir and the CAA at its plenary in Brussels.

However, on Wednesday, it decided not to vote on the CAA resolution, which is being seen as a huge diplomatic victory for India.

The efforts by outgoing British Member of EU Parliament Shaffaq Mohammad, who was born in Pakistan, to pass a resolution failed to succeed, as the pro-India group prevailed over the pro-Pakistan group in the EU Parliament which has postponed the voting for March.

The EU had earlier said that the opinions of the parliament and its members did not “represent the official position of the European Union” and distanced itself from the matter.