Blanar: EU-India Free Trade Agreement of Cardinal Importance for Slovakia

New Delhi, March 19 (TASR) - Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) had a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his visit to India, during which the two ministers concurred on the importance of ushering in a free trade deal between the EU and India, which is currently taking shape at the negotiation stage, TASR learned from its special correspondent on Wednesday. A free trade deal with India would hold special significance for Slovakia because the automobile sector is a strong driver of Slovakia's national economy. "Trade is enormously important for us because imports of cars from the EU today are burdened by high tariffs, and we'd like to negotiate conditions more advantageous to Slovak importers as part of this very free trade agreement between the EU [and India]," said Blanar. "I'll certainly also inform [European] Commissioner [Maros] Sefcovic about this, and I'm certainly going to talk with others at the European Commission level to encourage them to strike the deal sooner rather than later," he added. The ministers also touched on support for student exchange programmes and cooperation between universities, with Blanar underlining the importance of cultural cooperation as well. "I'm very pleased that I can say our political ties are at a very good level and growing in importance, if nothing else than by hosting the Indian president in Slovakia in April, along with a large trade mission," said Blanar. mf/df