EU and India agree to proceed with security and defence partnership, Kallas says

India and the European Union are expected to announce the conclusion of a free trade agreement, finalise a security and defence partnership pact and unveil a framework to facilitate the mobility of Indian professionals during summit-level talks next week, Reuters reported on Monday.

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend India’s Republic Day celebrations as chief guests on January 26, with the India-EU summit scheduled for the following day.

The visiting EU delegation will comprise around 90 members, including the bloc’s foreign and security policy chief Kaja Kallas, trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic, and several director generals overseeing trade, energy and industrial policy.

The European Union is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral goods trade amounting to $135 billion in the 2023–24 financial year.

The proposed free trade agreement is expected to give a significant boost to trade relations between the two sides.

The two sides are expected to adopt a document to announce the conclusion of the negotiations for the free trade agreement, billed as India’s biggest such deal in recent history.

Following this, the two sides will initiate the process of legal scrubbing and related processes for the signing of the trade deal.

At the first stage, the European Parliament will have to vote on it, and then the European Council will have to green-light the deal for Trade Commissioner Sefcovic to sign it with his Indian counterpart, the sources said.

The ambitious FTA is being firmed up amid increasing concerns over Washington’s trade and tariff policies which have impacted both India and the 27-nation EU.

India and the EU are also expected to unveil a joint comprehensive strategic vision that will govern their relationship for the period 2026-2030.

The sources told PTI that both sides are still holding negotiations to find common ground on contentious issues like CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), which is a framework for tariffs on carbon-intensive products such as steel and cement.

The EU has a principled position on CBAM and has not changed the provisions for the US and other partners, the sources said, adding both sides are working on a “compromise solution” on this sensitive issue.

The two sides are also expected to ink a number of other agreements to provide for deeper cooperation in several other sectors.

With inputs from agencies