India and the EU are fast-tracking talks for early conclusion of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA), as per an official statement released on Tuesday after teams of both sides met in New Delhi during a two-day summit.
The progress of the ongoing negotiations was reviewed by India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, and European Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Maros Sefcovic, on December 8 and 9, which Goyal termed as “productive”.
The dialogue aimed at expediting the conclusion of the India-EU FTA and deepen the trade relationship, the commerce ministry said, with the next EU-India summit planned for January, 2026.
Besides providing strategic guidance to the FTA negotiating teams, it was agreed to take forward the technical discussions held from December 3-9 in Delhi across key chapters of the pact covering Market Access for Goods, Rules of Origin, Services, and Technical Barriers to Trade.
“Both sides took note of the steady progress achieved across various negotiating tracks and agreed on the need to sustain the current momentum through continued exchanges,” it added, saying both teams decided to finalise the pact at the most by the first quarter of 2026.
India and the EU have been engaged in negotiations for an FTA ever since EU Chief Ursula von Der Leyen visited India in February this year, with the entire College of Commissioners for the first ever joint visit of its kind outside Europe.
Also Read: India working with ‘trusted’ trade partners to ink pacts: Goyal
Sefcovic said on Tuesday that while India-EU ties are growing fast, they’ve “only scratched the surface”.
“A commercially meaningful FTA would unlock enormous potential,” he wrote in a post on X.
India’s commerce ministry added that the ministerial-level discussions “reaffirmed the strong political resolve on either side to address pending issues through constructive engagement and to work towards a comprehensive, mutually advantageous outcome”.
The visit of the EU team “concluded with both parties expressing confidence and a renewed determination to intensify efforts toward the early conclusion of a modern, comprehensive, and mutually beneficial agreement,” it stated.
Follow us
