India and the European Union on Friday decided to conclude their much-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2025, and finalised a blueprint for increased collaboration in broad range of areas such as trade, mobility, technology and investment.
“We have directed our teams to conclude a mutually beneficial Bilateral Free Trade Agreement by the end of this year,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the delegation level talks with the President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and European College of Commissioners here.
India and EU resumed negotiations on FTA in 2022 and since then, nine rounds of negotiations have been held between officials of both sides. The 10th round of talks are scheduled for March 10-14 in Brussels.Both sides first made an attempt for an FTA in 2007 and that effort was abandoned in 2017 as UK went out of EU.
As an economic bloc, the EU is just behind the US in importance as a trading partner, even though China is second in terms of two-way trade with Delhi having a huge trade deficit with the neighbour.
India’s trade in goods with the EU was $ 137.41 billion in 2023-24 with exports at $ 75.9 billion and imports at $ 61.4 billion. Trade in services in 2023 was estimated at US$ 51.45 billion
Along with the FTA, India and EU are also negotiating agreements on investment protection and geographical indications (GI).
India-EU FTA will be the largest deal of its kind anywhere in the world, von der Leyen said. “I am aware it would not be easy but I also know that the timing and determination counts and this partnership comes at the right moment for the two of us,” she said in her address at an event before the delegation level talks. “Now more than ever geo-political context calls for decisive action.”
Both the EU and India face threat of higher import duties from the US, their most important trading partner. Apart from trade, the EU and US are at loggerheads politically. US President Donald Trump has gone to the extent of saying that “the EU was formed to screw the US”. Both sides are also at conflict on the question of resolution of conflict in Ukraine and relationship with Russia.
“Now is the time to step up our security and defence cooperation on land,
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