NEW DELHI: What happens in Ukraine will have an impact on the Indo-Pacific region, said EU Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen while addressing the seventh Raisina Dialogue here on Monday. “Countries battered by the pandemic now must deal with rising prices for grain, energy and fertilisers as a result of it. Our response to Russia’s war will decide the future of our global system and economy,” Leyen added.
She went on to add that Europe will make sure that Russia’s ‘unprovoked and unjustified” aggression against Ukraine will be a “strategic failure”. In her address in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the visiting leader wondered about the “new international relations” that both China and Russia have called for after announcing their “no-limits” friendship.
She, however, said the European Union would encourage Beijing to play its part in a peaceful and thriving Indo-Pacific. “We want a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific. It must be free, open, interconnected, prosperous, with a rules-based security architecture that serves all interests,” Leyen said at the inaugural session of the Dialogue jointly hosted by MEA and Observer Research Foundation.
Earlier, Leyen met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi where they established the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC). The TTC is a first for India but second for the EU as it has already established one with the US.
“Delighted to hold talks with the President of EU Commission. We reviewed the full range of India EU ties including economic and cultural linkages,” said PM Modi. Modi and Leyen also discussed the strong co-operation on climate change between the two sides.