Jean Asselborn Meets India's PM Modi, Foreign Minister Jaishankar

On Tuesday 26 April 2022, Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced that Minister Jean Asselborn is currently on a 2-day working visit to the Republic of India.

In New Delhi, the Minister participated in the multilateral conference “Raisina Dialogue” organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). This forum brings together every year representatives of civil society, economic actors, journalists as well as high Indian and foreign dignitaries in order to discuss the main global geopolitical and geoeconomic issues.

In this context, Minister Asselborn debated, alongside his counterparts from Poland, Zbigniew Rau, and Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, as well as experts Rachel Rizzo from the Atlantic Council and Leslie Vinjamuri from Chatham House, on the role that must endorse the EU on the international stage following the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. In this regard, the Minister first of all wished to recall that the European Union, which is a peace project, was built on the force of the law, and not on the law of the strongest. “The EU was built on the power of language, rather than the language of power. Diplomacy is and will always be important,” he added.

Regarding sanctions, the Minister underlined that sanctions are one of the main tools available to the EU to push the Kremlin to end its war against Ukraine. However, we must be aware that the effect of sanctions is never immediate, but becomes visible in the medium term. As for the delivery of arms, Jean Asselborn recalled that it was the first time that the EU approved the delivery of arms to a country in conflict. “The strength of the EU lies, among other things, in its unity and determination,” he remarked. The difficulties currently encountered by many countries on the economic, trade and food levels are the direct consequences of the war waged by Russia, and not of the sanctions decided by the EU and its international partners in response to this war.

Minister Asselborn was also received by the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Narendra Modi, and had a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. This working meeting was an opportunity to examine the good bilateral relations between India and Luxembourg as well as the means of strengthening them further, in view of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between the India and Luxembourg which will be celebrated in 2023.

The ministers particularly welcomed the good economic and cultural relations between the two countries. Cooperation in the fields of sustainable finance and space was also mentioned. Besides bilateral relations, Ministers Asselborn and Jaishankar had an in-depth discussion on the latest international developments, including the war in Ukraine and the situation in Afghanistan and Myanmar. They agreed on the absolute necessity of ending Russia's war in Ukraine.

Finally, Minister Asselborn took the opportunity of his trip to New Delhi to meet Jesal Doshi, Deputy CEO of B Medical Systems, a Luxembourg manufacturer and global distributor of medical refrigeration devices which recently set up in India. The Minister will also participate in a reception on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Luxembourg Embassy in India