Ahead of the first physical meeting of the Quad leadership with focus on the Indo-Pacific region, the EU on Thursday announced that it will be stepping up its engagement with the region which would include starting investment negotiations with India.

While India and the EU had agreed to re-start trade talks — which had been stalled for eight years — and begin negotiations for a standalone investment protection pact during their summit meeting in May, both now feature in the joint communication on the EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific which was unveiled on Thursday.

“The world’s centre of gravity is moving towards the Indo Pacific, both in geo-economic and geo-political terms. The futures of the EU and the Indo-Pacific are interlinked. The EU is already the top investor, the leading development cooperation partner and one of the biggest trading partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Our engagement aims at maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific for all, while building strong and lasting partnerships to cooperate on matters from the green transition, ocean governance or the digital agenda to security and defence,’’ the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Joseph Borrell said.

The adoption of the joint communication — as per the European Council’s conclusions on an EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific adopted on April 19 — coincidentally came hours after the US, the UK and Australia announced a new security pact (Aukus) in the Asia-Pacific in a move that is being seen as an effort to counter China.

China has described the move as “extremely irresponsible’’. The external affairs ministry spokesman, Arindam Bagchi, did not comment on it though several questions were posed on this development at the weekly briefing today.

“I don’t have anything to share on Aukus for the moment.’’

Asked if the announcement of Aukus dilutes the Quad, Bagchi said: “I think the Quad summit stands on its own. It’s extremely important... Clearly other Quad partners also attach a lot of importance to it as you can see in the midst of Covid, an in-person (meeting) is happening. I wouldn’t like to comment or speculate on implications.”

China has always frowned upon this grouping; referring to it as an Asian Nato though as of now the four member countries have not publicly discussed any military cooperation in this framework.