New Delhi: The first-ever India-European Union (EU) Security and Defence Consultations took place on June 10 in Brussels pursuant to a decision taken at the India-EU Summit in July 2020, the Embassy of India said in a release. The consultations were co-chaired by Ministry of Defence Joint Secretary (IC) Somnath Ghosh and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Joint Secretary (Europe West) Sandeep Chakravorty from the Indian side and Joanneke Balfoort, Director Security and Defence Policy, from the EU side.
The wide ranging discussions covered the evolving security situation in Europe, India’s neighborhood and the Indo-Pacific.
“The two sides noted number of positive developments in the area of security and defence cooperation in recent years, including establishment of a regular maritime security dialogue, which met for the second time in February 2022, the first-ever joint naval exercises held in June 2021, and a number of joint workshops on the subject of fostering maritime security,” the release said.
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The two sides during the consultations also discussed various means of increasing India-EU cooperation on maritime security, implementation of the European code of conduct on arms export to India's neighborhood, cooperation in co-development and co-production of defence equipment, including India's participation in PESCO.
“Both sides agreed to increase India-EU defence and security cooperation as an important pillar of the bilateral strategic relations,” the release added.
The Embassy of India, Brussels, said the next consultations will be held in Delhi at a mutually agreed convenient time.