India and the 27-nation European Union today held extensive talks on wide-ranging issues.They include improving trade to exploring cooperation in Afghanistan. The issues came up for discussion between EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton during his meeting with the Indian leaders.<br/><br/>Ashton, who is on her first visit to India as EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and the first vice president of the European Commission, held delegation-level talks with her Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. She later called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. <br/><br/>Ahead of the next EU-India summit, the discussions were largely to firm up the agenda for the October meeting in Brussels. Security and defence cooperation was also on the agenda, with her delegation including EU's anti-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove and head of EU military staff, General Ton Van Osch. The discussions also focussed on expediting talks on a new comprehensive trade and investment agreement. <br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that the bilateral trade between the 27-nation bloc and India is estimated to be over 50 billion us dollars. <br/><br/>The two sides agreed to double bilateral trade in another five years at the India-EU summit in Marseilles, France, in September 2008. Ashton will be meeting Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi and Home Minister P. Chidambaram tomorrow.<br/><br/>Before leaving for New Delhi Catherine Ashton said that the two sides need to improve their capacity to respond jointly to global challenges. She also called for encompassing a wide range of areas of cooperation from security, climate change and the economy to migration, education and culture. <br/><br/>Ashton said she hopes to deepen cooperation with India in the area of security and defence, in particular in the field of crisis management and anti-piracy.