France, Germany, and Poland on Wednesday called for the rapid signing of a free trade deal between the EU and India, calling it a \u201cdecisive step\u201d in relations, the French foreign minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA major agreement between the EU and India is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, with a summit dedicated to it at the end of January,\u201d Jean-Noel Barrot said at a briefing alongside German, Polish, and Indian counterparts.<\/p>\n
It marks a \u201cdecisive step in the strategic rapprochement between our two regions\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
India and the EU have long been negotiating the deal. A summit is scheduled for January 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very important that we quickly sign a free\u2011trade agreement between the European Union and India,\u201d said Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski.<\/p>\n
His German counterpart Johann Wadephul said it was \u201can important step towards greater diversification\u201d, adding a security and defence partnership was \u201calso on the right track\u201d.<\/p>\n
He stressed the need to \u201creduce dependencies so as not to make ourselves vulnerable to blackmail\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two sides had hoped to finalise a deal by the end of 2025, at a time of global trade tensions between major powers.<\/p>\n
The EU is already India\u2019s largest trading partner, accounting for 124 billion euros ($130 billion) worth of trade in goods in 2023 \u2014 more than 12 percent of total Indian trade, according to Brussels.<\/p>\n
The bloc is pushing for a trade deal that lowers entry barriers for its cars, spirits and wines while New Delhi wants easier access for its textiles and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
The agreement would also cover security.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we can bring greater stability to both the international economy and global politics\u201d said Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, adding it was \u201cnecessary that India strengthen its relationship\u201d with Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France, Germany, and Poland on Wednesday called for the rapid signing of a free trade deal between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,1824,730,522,197535,770,1201],"class_list":{"0":"post-681793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-mna","15":"tag-poland","16":"tag-trade"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115858523041557862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681793","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=681793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}