Large protests planned against Modi in Brussels

By Khalid Hameed Farooqi
and Irfan Aftab

BRUSSELS: As the EU-India Summit begins here on Wednesday (today), with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving on Tuesday, Kashmiris, Sikhs and other minority groups of India have already announced large demonstrations against him.

Several protests will take place in Brussels during the two-day visit of PM Modi. On Wednesday afternoon at Schuhmann Platz a large crowd will gather under the leadership of Kashmir Council EU to condemn the human rights violations in occupied Kashmir by the Indian army.

In addition, demonstrators will demand the EU leaders to think twice before doing
trade with a country that denies human rights to its minorities.

The EU-India discussions will focus on cooperation on counter terrorism besides latest developments in the EU's and India's respective neighbourhoods.

This includes the situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Nepal, Syria and Ukraine.

According to experts, in recent past PM Modi's policy shift towards Pakistan was largely encouraged by the EU counterparts as stability is seen to be important because of the refugee crisis in Europe.

President Tusk and Juncker will represent the EU at the summit accompanied by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom.

The leaders will equally address the ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with an aim to instill some political impetus to the stalled talks. The EU-India summit is to make concrete progress in trade and investment, energy, climate, water and migration.