4 months ago
2
India and the European Union agreed connected Wednesday (January 21, 2026) to motion a caller Security and Defence Partnership covering maritime security, cybersecurity and counterterrorism, the E.U.’s highest ranking diplomat Kaja Kallas announced.
The concern volition beryllium signed adjacent week during the sojourn of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa to India, wherever they volition beryllium chief guests astatine Republic Day celebrations. The leaders volition co-chair the 16th India-E.U. Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The preparations for the sojourn were going well, but were not without challenges, said Ms. Kallas, who volition beryllium accompanying the leaders to India.
The sojourn is centred astir the signing of a ‘Free Trade’ Agreement (FTA), which is inactive being finalised.
India and the E.U. volition follow a caller broad strategical docket adjacent week, utilizing a 2030 readying horizon, Ms. Kallas told European parliamentarians successful Strasbourg. She noted that the E.U. is among India’s largest trading partners and described India arsenic “indispensable” to Europe’s economical resilience.
The 2 sides worked connected the associated connection and docket mindful of the information that the Summit “must deliver, taking into relationship the geopolitical landscape”, Ms. Kallas said.
Additionally, the 2 sides are besides aiming to reason a Security of Information Agreement, Ms. Kallas said, adding that successful a unsafe world, India and the E.U. could payment from moving together.
“[The] E.U. and India are moving person unneurotic astatine a clip erstwhile the rules-based planetary bid is nether unprecedented unit done wars, coercion, and economical fragmentation,” she said. Alongside the Russia-Ukraine warfare entering its 4th twelvemonth adjacent month, Europe has faced geopolitical shocks emanating from the White House implicit the past year, with U.S. President Donald Trump renegotiating the ground of the transatlantic relationship. In caller days, Mr. Trump threatened tariffs connected respective European countries if they did not facilitate the transportation of Greenland to the U.S.
Ms, Kallas told MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) that India and the E.U. indispensable go much ambitious partners. “Two large democracies cannot spend to hesitate,” she said.
During the sojourn to New Delhi adjacent week, the 2 sides program to reason an Memorandum of Understanding connected a broad mobility framework, to facilitate the question of students, seasonal workers, researchers and highly skilled professionals, and promoting probe and innovation, Ms. Kallas said.
“In the Indo-Pacific and beyond, Europe and India tin assistance anchor stableness by defending unfastened oversea lanes, strengthening maritime domain consciousness and resisting coercion successful each of its forms,” Ms. Kallas told parliamentarians.
