Indo-EU summit cancelled

The Indo-European Union summit to be held on October 13-14 in The Hague has been cancelled. No new date has yet been fixed for the meeting.

Although no details were given for the cancellation of the India-EU Economic Cross Cultural Programme, the government of The Netherlands in a brief statement, for the EU, said that "the Indian government gave pressing domestic circumstances as the reason for calling off the summit."

The European Union is India's largest trading partner, accounting for 22.07 per cent of India's exports and 18.26 per cent of total Indian imports in the year 2003 (April-October). As per the latest figures available for the year 2003, total trade between EU and India increased from euro 25.851 billion in 2002 to euro 27.496 billion in 2003, registering a growth of 6.36 per cent.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to attend the summit.

The member states of the European Union are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.