High-Level Delegations, Deliberations Point To Major Strides In India-EU Ties

The icing on the cake could be the much-anticipated trade deal that will not only give Indian exporters and investors a big opportunity but also provide EU states with a big and growing market.

India and the EU have entered the final leg of negotiations for the trade pact. Both the External Affairs Minister and the Commerce and Industry Minister are currently in Europe, as well.

This goes on to display the political will to expand economic partnership with Europe at a time when US unilateral moves have created global turbulence. 

India-EU Free Trade Agreement

The India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, relaunched in June 2022 after a gap of over nine years, have since witnessed several rounds of intensive discussions and multiple high-level ministerial dialogues. The proposed FTA is envisioned as a modern, rules-based partnership addressing contemporary economic challenges while facilitating greater market integration.

India is pressing for zero-duty access for labour-intensive industries such as textiles, leather, apparel, gems and jewellery, and handicrafts, alongside broader provisions that protect farmers, micro, small, and medium (MSME) enterprises while integrating Indian industries into global value chains. 

There is a strong political commitment to conclude a comprehensive and forward-looking trade deal.

India's Trade With The EU 

The EU remains India’s largest trading partner and a key source of investment, with bilateral trade in goods seeing substantial growth in 2024–25, touching about $136.53 billion.

The history of India-EU relations has transitioned from a simple buyer-seller relationship to a sophisticated strategic partnership. While it began with trade, it now encompasses defence, technology, mobility, and investments. The EU remains a key destination for Indian exports such as engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and IT services. As global supply chains diversify post-pandemic and amid geopolitical tensions, India and the EU are increasingly viewing each other as reliable long-term economic partners.

The economic partnership is also being strengthened through the mobility of skilled and semi-skilled Indians to Europe. 

Who would have imagined even five years ago that Germany would host a sizeable number of Indian students and high-skilled workers? The numbers are set to rise amid a declining population in Germany and changes in rules for H1-B and other visas by the Trump Administration. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to India on January 12-13 will focus, among other issues, on the mobility of Indians, an emerging pillar in the partnership.        

Even as the ties graduate to the next mature phase, irritants exist over India’s partnership with Russia and issues, which are essentially New Delhi’s internal matters, such as democracy, human rights, and press freedom. 

Differences have surfaced over India’s energy ties with Russia and its long-standing partnership with Moscow, voting patterns at multilateral forums, and strategic autonomy. 

Sanctions On Nayara Energy

Sanctions by the EU and the UK were placed on the Indian-Russian joint venture Nayara Energy in late 2025, reflecting the EU's use of economic tools to pressure third-party ties with Moscow. The EU’s attempt to link trade and technology cooperation to India's foreign policy alignment creates a "trust deficit," as New Delhi perceives Brussels’ stance as "Eurocentric" and insensitive to Asia’s unique security dependency.  

Jaishankar once remarked that "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that its problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems".

France is the only western European state that values India’s strategic autonomy concept, and has rarely tried to lecture India. There is limited appreciation for India’s ties with Russia and how that contributes to Eurasian stability amid China’s expansionist tendencies. There is limited appreciation that India-Russia ties enable the reduction of Moscow’s dependence on China. Ironically, Europe continues to trade with Russia and has a huge dependency on China and has been pampering Pakistan by giving economic concessions.

With India walking the extra mile to stitch Indo-Pacific partnership and defence industry ties with Europe, the latter needs to appreciate India’s geopolitical realities and concept of strategic autonomy to upgrade the partnership to the next level. 

(The writer is a commentator on geopolitics. Views are personal.)