With India and the European Union (EU) decided to conclude a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by year-end, high-level ministerial delegations from the two sides met here last night for a meeting of the second India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC).

The meeting was co-chaired on the Indian side by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

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Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency Maros Sefcovic and Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva co-chaired on the EU side, a joint statement said.

The India-EU TTC was established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in April 2022 as a key bilateral platform to address challenges at the confluence of trade, trusted technology and security.

India and the European Union are two large and vibrant democracies with open market economies, shared values and pluralistic societies, and they are natural partners in a multipolar world.

The deepening of bilateral relations and the growing strategic convergence between the EU and India respond to the shifting dynamics of the global geopolitical landscape and a common interest in promoting global stability, economic security, and sustainable and inclusive growth.

In that respect, both sides emphasized again the importance of the rules-based international order and full respect for the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency, and peaceful resolution of disputes.

The TTC reflects a shared acknowledgement between the EU and India of the increasingly critical links between trade and technology, the potential of cooperation on these issues to enhance the economies of both partners and the need to work together on the related security challenges.

Both sides note the potential of their partnership to increase resilience, strengthen connectivity and drive forward the development of green and clean technologies, the press release added.

This was the second meeting of the TTC. The first meeting was held in Brussels on 16 May 2023. The TTC Ministerial Meeting provided political guidance for the way forward. Subsequently, on 24 November 2023, a stock-taking meeting in virtual mode reviewed the progress made by the three TTC working groups.