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Thank you and it's a great pleasure to be here. 

It is my first press conference in this room, so [it is] great to also welcome Mr. Jaishankar here, and a [real] pleasure to host you in Brussels.

The European Union and India are natural partners. Together, we make up a quarter of the world's population and GDP. By working together, we have great potential to make global impact. Today, we are holding the first ever EU-India strategic dialogue. This marks a significant step forward in our partnership, and in addressing threats like cyber-attacks and foreign interference. It also paves a way for much deeper defence corporation, sharing expertise, and exploring joint initiatives.

First, on security, Europe and India faced many of the same challenges. Terrorism, military buildups, and violations of international law affect both of us. Last week, India and European Union held joined a naval exercise in the Indian Ocean. This is more than symbolic. It shows our shared commitment to uphold international law at sea.

I want to reiterate the EU’s strong condemnation of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Those responsible must be held accountable. India has the right to protect its citizens in accordance with the international law. Minister Jaishankar, you and I were in close contact after the attack. I regret the tragic loss of lives in India and Pakistan. The EU supports continued talks between India and Pakistan to reduce tensions, and no one stands to gain from renewed conflicts in the region.

EU-India cooperation on counter-terrorism is also growing stronger. We already work together on information sharing, capacity building, and joint efforts to combat terrorism financing. And today, we also agreed to hold our next counter-terrorism dialogue in autumn.

The EU is working more together with India on space.
We already have access to each other's data from Earth observation satellites,
and at our meeting, we agreed to establish a new formal dialogue on space. This
will cover areas such as satellite navigation and security, and the first
session is to take place also [in] autumn, this year.

Looking ahead, there is a strong case for an EU-India Security and Defence Partnership. We already have such partnerships with seven other countries, and today, we renewed our intention to work towards this goal, because peace and stability in the in the Indo-Pacific are closely intertwined with peace and security in Europe.

Beyond defence, we cooperate in many other areas, from digital connectivity to research and innovation, to green energy and trade. We are committed to progress towards an ambitious, free trade agreement this year. This was agreed by President von de Leyen and Prime Minister Modi in February.

And finally, Minister Jaishankar and I also reaffirmed our shared commitment to multilateralism and stable rules-based international order. In today's contested global landscape, it is more than ever important to build strong and trusted partnerships. The European Union is a reliable, predictable, and credible partner for India. With the visit of the European Commission’s College to New Delhi in February and next year's EU-India summit, we want to further deepen our partnership at all levels.

So, dear Minister, thank you again for being here and looking forward to our further discussions later today. Thank you.

Q&A. 

Q. I have two questions. The first one is for both.
Did you discuss any diverging approaches to Russia, and did you come to
conclusions on the matter? The second is for the High Representative,
specifically, are there any details you could share about the proposal for the
18^th sanctions package, and will it be a biting package as
was discussed earlier? 

We will discuss the security situation further when it
comes to the security situation in Europe as well as in the Indo-Pacific. So,
we will have those discussions later on. When it comes to the details of the 18^th package, we have a separate press conference today.
We will reveal the details, and we can talk about that then. 

Q. Two questions. The first question is on Israel’s raid on an international humanitarian aid ship to Gaza. There were nine EU citizens, including one member of Parliament. Several countries condemned it, and experts said that unlawful to stop it in the international waters. So, what is the EU position about it? And the same question for you, sir. And the second, if I may say, it is about India-Pakistan conflict, I would say, will the EU take initiatives to resolve the conflict in a peaceful way? 

So, of course, the consular protection for the
citizens is up to the Member States to provide. When it comes to international
law, it has to be followed also in the international waters. But what we
discussed today also is that we have to develop the international law further
when it comes to maritime issues, like we have the issue of stopping the shadow
fleet, for example, [or] we have the issue of [damaged] subsea cables. All
these things are new threats and new worries. And I think in the global multilateral
fora, we need to develop the international maritime law further. 

Q. Will you be pushing today India to have a more tough position towards Russia? And then my second question, since you were at the Shangri-La Dialogue and the Philippines a few weeks ago, is tightening cooperation with India related to your concerns on China?? 

As I mentioned before, we will have those discussions
later on. What is clear also from the discussions that we have right now, is
that nuclear threats cannot pay off. And this is the mutual concern. We see
different actors – in our case, Russia – using nuclear threats, and we also see
other actors in the world using this. So, we will discuss this further. 

And then when it comes to our India policy, we have
our separate Indian policy that is related to our bilateral relations. It is
not against anybody, but it is really to our benefit to see where the mutual
interests of both sides are. And I think in this global changing world, we need
more partners than less and that is why we are working to really intensify our
cooperation regarding security and defence, for example. 

Q. Despite the Brexit and probably due to the pressure of the geopolitical environment, there are more and more relations between the EU and the UK government now. Would you be in favour of more connections and also more EU officials or business leaders taking part in the next India Global Forum taking place in London on 16-19^th of June? 

For us, we [have] just finished the security defence
partnership that gives us possibilities to cooperate with the UK even further.
We were also mentioning [that] in our meeting. We have several fora with India,
regarding different topics. But of course, we also have different fora with the
UK and [we are] also looking forward to intensifying our cooperation,
especially in the security and defence field.  

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-273400