“Momentous in terms of change”: Ugo Astuto on his stint as EU Ambassador to India

New Delhi [India], September 13 : Ugo Astuto, who served for four years as the European Union's (EU) Ambassador to India, termed his stint as “momentous in terms of change” while adding that India’s strategic partnership with EU is “gaining strength by the day”.
Astuto’s remarks came in the wake of his tenure as EU delegation’s Ambassador to India coming to an end.
In an interview with ANI, Astuto lauded India’s G20 presidency and also termed the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor as a “very significant step”.
Sharing his experience during his stint as an ambassador to India, Astuto said, “Well, I've been very lucky because these four years have been momentous in terms of change. Our strategic partnership with India has definitely grown and is gaining strength by the day.”
“So what I see is a clear determination from both sides to make this strategic partnership reach new heights,” he added.
When asked about the changes he witnessed in India-EU strategic relations during his tenure, Astuto said, “I think it's becoming broader and deeper. The India and European Union are two large democratic spaces. India is the fifth-largest world economy by nominal GDP. European Union is the world's largest trade bloc, so they're obviously bound to interact.”
The EU’s Ambassador to India also congratulated India for successfully hosting the G20 Summit under its presidency.
“I agree that the launch of the India-Middle East Europe-Economic-Corridor is very significant indeed. It's about infrastructure, which is sustained, sustainable socially, but also fiscally, and which is implemented in a transparent and inclusive fashion,” he added.
“We have a number of players coming together in order to ensure that our vision for infrastructure is based on these principles. And as you will have seen, this memorandum is about infrastructure in a broad sense. It's about railways. It's about digital connectivity. It's about facilitating trade,” Astuto also said, adding, “So I think it's a very significant step.”
On his expectations on India-EU ties, Astuto said that he expects the strategic partnership to grow even further.
Listing the factors bringing India and the EU together, he said, “We have shared values as large democratic spaces, and we have converging interests. We believe in an international community which is ruled by law, which is underpinned by respect for international law.”
He also said, “We have a converging vision when it comes to the Indo-Pacific. We want this to be a region which is prosperous, stable, and rules-based.”
India, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.
The mammoth corridor, designed to connect India with West Asia and Europe, promises to revolutionise international trade and cooperation.