00:01And we have breaking news coming in. It seems the EU Council President is now in India.
00:07The European Council President Antonio Costa has arrived in India as the European Union and New Delhi seek to see a free trade pact.
00:17Now the EU Council President is receiving the guard of honour.
00:21Now the EU leadership is in India to seal the trade deal as we know which is being termed as the mother of all deals.
00:32Mr Costa is here in India now. Joining us now is India Today's Shivani Sharma.
00:39Shivani, do tell us the visit. Why is it important and what kind of a programme can we expect for the EU Council President
00:48and also the other senior delegates of the EU?
00:53Anjali, this is a very important visit because this is being termed as a visit that will bring out the mother of all deals.
01:01That's what we've been getting with the statement of the EU leadership.
01:05And now the European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa, he's already arrived here.
01:11And he's welcomed by the guard of honour at the airport station Palam.
01:16And this is the visit that will be not only important in terms of the free trade agreement that India is working with the EU,
01:25that will be announced and later signed, and also defence and security pact between India and EU.
01:31So this is a visit in which we'll see the leadership of EU not only meeting the External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jai Shankar,
01:40but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi after they will be witnessing the Republic Day Parade tomorrow.
01:46And later on, there will be, on 27th, this will be a meeting with the Prime Minister at the Hyderabad House
01:54and later the announcement of the MOUs between EU and India.
02:00So this is being termed as a very important visit, I think, because especially in view of the present geopolitical churn
02:07and whatever tariff tensions are going on between India and US.
02:12So in that perception, in that view, this particular visit is going to be very important.
02:18And the statements have already been coming in from the EU that they are going to sign a very big deal with India,
02:23not only in terms of economy, but also defence and security.
02:26Right. Thank you, Shivani, for all those details in India,
02:29and EU will get down to it right after the Republic Day Parade.
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