{"id":515153,"date":"2025-10-20T19:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/515153\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T19:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:45:20","slug":"european-council-approves-new-strategic-eu-india-agenda-efforts-to-conclude-fta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/515153\/","title":{"rendered":"European Council approves \u2018New Strategic EU-India Agenda\u2019, efforts to conclude FTA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Council on Monday (October 20, 2025) approved conclusions on a \u2018New Strategic EU-India Agenda\u2019 announced earlier by the European Commission<\/a>, welcoming the \u201cstrong impetus\u201d it provides to relations between the European Union and India.<\/p>\n

The Belgium-based council, responsible for the general political direction and priorities of the 27-member economic bloc, highlighted efforts on both sides to conclude an India-EU free trade agreement (FTA)<\/a> by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Its conclusions this week endorse the Joint Communication on the new agenda and its objective of deepening EU-India ties, including prosperity and sustainability, technology and innovation, security and defence, and connectivity and global issues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council welcomes in particular efforts to conclude a balanced, ambitious, mutually beneficial and economically meaningful free trade agreement, which the European Commission and the Indian government aim to finalise by the end of the year,\u201d the council said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch agreement must include enhanced market access, removal of trade barriers, and provisions on sustainable development,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The European Council noted that closer collaboration between the EU and India on security and defence matters based on the principles of mutual trust and respect were of particular importance against the backdrop of an increasingly complex geopolitical outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council takes note of the intention to pursue work towards the establishment of a security and defence partnership, which could also facilitate defence industrial cooperation when appropriate,\u201d it states.<\/p>\n

It said the EU will continue to engage with India on all aspects of \u201cRussia\u2019s war of aggression against the Ukraine\u201d. It also emphasised the joint capacity and responsibility of the EU and India to safeguard multilateralism and the rules-based international order with the UN Charter at its core, as well as the multilateral trading system, in particular the World Trade Organisation (WTO).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promotion and protection of democratic values and norms, international law and human rights, including the rights of women and children, is an intrinsic part of the EU-India strategic agenda,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The council called on the European Commission to take forward the articulation and implementation of this \u2018New Strategic EU-India Agenda\u2019 on the basis of the priorities set out in the Joint Communication last month.<\/p>\n

It followed the visit of the EU College of Commissioners to India in February this year, which laid the foundation for a \u201cnew chapter in EU-India relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

During this landmark visit \u2014 the first of its kind to the Indo-Pacific \u2014 both sides committed to raising the Strategic Partnership to a higher level to boost shared prosperity, strengthen security, and tackle major global challenges together, the Joint Communication read. <\/p>\n

Published – October 20, 2025 10:10 pm IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Council on Monday (October 20, 2025) approved conclusions on a \u2018New Strategic EU-India Agenda\u2019 announced earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,168253,168251,299,5187,42649,1699,168252],"class_list":{"0":"post-515153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-eu-to-enhance-a-strategic-cooperation","10":"tag-eu-india-agenda","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-council","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-european-union-to-finalise-free-trade-agreement"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115408216138430664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}