In a major move, India and the EU discussed the prospect of enhanced maritime security cooperation and joint development and co-production of defence equipment. These deliberations took place during the first India-EU security and defence consultations in Brussels, as determined by the July 2020 India-EU summit.

India’s Participation in Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) was also involved in Friday’s talks, the Indian embassy in the Belgian capital said. It said Friday’s extensive discussions covered the evolving security situation in Europe, India’s neighbours and the Indo-Pacific.

PESCO is part of the EU Security and Defence Policy. Launched in December 2017, it takes defence cooperation among participating EU member states to a new level. The embassy said that the two sides have noticed some positive progress in security and defence cooperation between the two countries in recent years, including the establishment of regular maritime security dialogues.

“During the consultations, the two sides also discussed various ways to strengthen Indo-European maritime security cooperation, implementation of a European code of conduct for arms exports to India’s periphery, cooperation in co-development and co-production of defence equipment, including India’s participation in PESCO,” it said in a statement.

“The two sides agreed to strengthen Indo-European defence and security cooperation as an important pillar of their bilateral strategic relationship,” the statement said. The talks took place in the shadow of the Ukraine crisis.