A change of scene

New Delhi, Sept. 5: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to break away from tradition and host the reception for British counterpart Tony Blair and other delegates to the India-EU Summit on Wednesday at Humayun’s tomb.

The Mughal emperor’s last resting place has been gaining popularity over the past few years as a venue for big events.

Last year, the Aga Khan trust held its annual “best architect award” ceremony there.

However, this would be the first time in decades that South Block would hold a reception at Humayun’s tomb and not in Rashtrapati Bhavan or Hyderabad House.

The initiative for the new venue is said to have come from Singh. “We wanted a change of scene,” was the short explanation provided by the foreign ministry.

Singh and Blair will leave for Shimla on Thursday, where the two Prime Ministers would have an opportunity to review bilateral relations.

In the afternoon, the leaders are scheduled to return to Delhi and hold a joint news conference on their two-day talks.

Blair and the EU delegates arrive here tomorrow from Beijing after the Sino-EU Summit.

On September 7, the India-EU Summit will take place at Hyderabad House, before the Prime Minister hosts the reception at Humayun’s tomb in the evening.

Several agreements, including those on energy, higher education, trade and investment, are expected to be signed by the two sides on Wednesday.

However, there is still some doubt whether India and the EU will be able to sign the framework agreement on Delhi’s participation in the proposed Galileo Global Satellite System.

The Galileo is likely to be the only competition to the Global Positioning System that the Americans already have and the Global Navigation Sputnik System or Glonass that the Russians are planning to build.

However, unlike the other two, Galileo would be operated commercially under civilian supervision and not by the military.

India formally expressed its desire to be a stakeholder in the billion-dollar Galileo project in November 2003.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said the two sides would endorse the joint action plan that they agreed on last year when they also entered into a strategic partnership. The dialogue would include disarmament and counter-terrorism.

The EU is India’s largest trade partner and foreign investor. The two-way trade is over $35 billion and the foreign direct investment from EU in India is nearly $15 billion.

The Blair team would include CEOs of leading companies and is expected to push for economic and trade co-operation.

Blair is also scheduled to address a separate India-EU Business Summit on September 8 and visit one of the sites where work with British financial assistance has been undertaken to help victims of HIV/AIDS.