The European Union and India will agree to revive stalled free-trade negotiations at a virtual summit on Saturday while also seeking closer cooperation to combat climate change, as concerns about China bring Brussels and New Delhi closer.
Partly overshadowed by the COVID-19 crisis in India, the summit will gather Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all of the bloc’s 27 leaders for the first time, a sign of the EU’s renewed interest in the Indo-Pacific region.
Past EU-India summits have involved only the Indian prime minister and the EU’s chief executive and its chairman, both of whom will be listening in for the two-hour summit.
“What we will see is a breakthrough on EU-India ties,” said a senior EU official involved in preparing the meeting. “There is momentum in our relations,” the official said.
China’s rise from a benign trading partner to a rival power with a growing military presence has alarmed the West and its allies in the Indo-Pacific, where Brussels is…