India and the European Union (EU) on Thursday pushed for a stronger strategic partnership through increased cooperation in counter-terrorism as well as security issues that also takes into account “non-traditional threats.”

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in at the Belgium capital to attend Friday’s India-EU summit on a cold wintry evening, the 27-nation EU echoed his views on the need to expand bilateral engagement.

“I will seek to deepen our political and strategic cooperation, including in the area of counter-terrorism and other non-traditional threats to security,” Dr. Singh said on the eve of the 11th annual summit.

An EU statement said that European Council President Van Rompuy was looking forward to launch of EU-India cooperation in the field of security, in particular in the area of counter-terrorism.

Dr. Singh said India’s partnership with the EU has evolved from economic and development cooperation to a broader strategic engagement. The one-day summit is to be held on Friday.

The EU statement said the main focus of the Summit will be the strengthening of the political dimension of the EU-India strategic partnership, in particular through increased cooperation in security and counter-terrorism.

The summit is being held against the backdrop of the intense negotiations on a comprehensive Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement that will help increase in Indo-EU trade by 40 per cent to 100 billion Euros once it comes into force.

The EU statement said the Summit will also provide a “strong impetus” for an early conclusion of a broad-based investment and trade agreement.

Dr. Singh said the progress in the negotiations to finalise the ambitious pact will be reviewed at the summit.

Ahead of the summit, the EU leadership also took note of the negotiations to hammer out an agreement underscoring the need to give a “final push” to the negotiations. India hopes to conclude the agreement in March next.

“I am particularly confident that we will make headway towards a Free Trade Agreement at this Summit, bringing together markets of one and a half billion people. We should now give the final push to these talks so we can hail a historic agreement when we meet next year in Delhi,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Rompuy on his part said the EU will give fresh momentum to the ongoing negotiations on the Agreement, which will bring significant economic benefits to both sides and further strengthen their strategic partnership.