Iron column in Delhi. File photoMOSCOW, Apr 23The European Union plans to resume trade talks with India in an effort to weaken the country's ties with Russia, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed senior official. «The European Union plans to resume trade talks with India in in an attempt to provide the South Asian country with a viable alternative to diversify away from Russia,» the agency reports.In Britain, they demanded that India abandon friendship with Russia to its own detriment. In addition to trade, the EU plans a technology council with the participation of India, within which discussions are planned on data protection regulation, social networks, as well as «broader digitalization efforts.» European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said earlier that the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will visit India on April 24-25, where he plans, among other things, to discuss the situation in Ukraine. According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, this will be von der Leyen's first visit to India as head of the European Commission. Negotiations on the formation of a free trade zone between the EU and India stalled in 2013. Western countries imposed numerous sanctions in response to the Russian special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. A number of companies announced their withdrawal from the Russian market and the closure of production facilities in the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that Western companies that refuse to work with Russia did so under enormous pressure, but Russia will solve all the problems with the economy that the West creates for it. According to analysts at the Yale School of Management, by the current moment there are about 750 foreign companies announced the reduction of activities in Russia to one degree or another, among them Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Mango, IKEA, Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, Danone, BP, Shell, McDonald's. According to the Russian authorities, most of the foreign companies operating in Russia do not want to leave the market. Last week, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov said that the heads of foreign companies «are in the format of decisions», while he pointed out that, having put the business on pause, the companies continue to pay wages to the employed, at the same time curtail production. Russia began military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
