Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Namaste and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this press briefing on the ongoing state visit of the President of the European Union Council, His Excellency Antonio Costa, and President of the European Union Commission, Her Excellency Ursula von der Leyen. For this Press Briefing, we have with us Hon’ble Commerce Minister of India Shri Piyush Goyal and he is joined by Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri, as also Commerce Secretary Shri Rajesh Agrawal. With that, I invite Foreign Secretary to make his opening remarks. Sir, the floor is yours.
Shri Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary: Thank you, Randhir. Good evening to all of you. First of all, it's a privilege to have with us for this briefing the Hon’ble Minister for Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal. We were expected to be joined at the briefing also by the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, but since the previous engagements ran a little late, he had to unfortunately go for his next scheduled meeting and that is why he is not here. Let me make a few quick points with regard to the outcome of this truly historic visit that is currently underway.
As you are aware, the President of the European Council, His Excellency Mr. Antonio Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Her Excellency Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen are on a state visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Both the Presidents were jointly chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations yesterday. This is the first time ever that we've had European leaders as guests of honor for our Republic Day. The leaders from the EU are accompanied by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security and Vice President of the European Commission, Her Excellency Ms. Kaja Kallas, the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security as I said, Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, and other senior leading officers from the Commission and the Council.
Yesterday Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji received both the Presidents at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The dignitaries then witnessed the Republic Day Parade as Guests of Honor. For the first time ever, there was an EU contingent, in fact, consisting of European Union military staff and the European Union naval operations ATALANTA and ASPIDES. Representatives from both of these operations participating in the Republic Day parade. The EU leaders also joined Rashtrapati Ji and Prime Minister in the evening at the ‘At-Home’ reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Today, Presidents Costa and von der Leyen and Prime Minister Modi co-chaired the 16th India-EU Summit. They held detailed bilateral talks both in the restricted format and in the delegation-level format. Prime Minister hosted a luncheon in honor of the visiting Presidents. There were several key documents that were signed and exchanged before the leaders, including, as you have all come to know by now, the joint announcement on the conclusion of the negotiations of a landmark and historic India-EU Free Trade Agreement, an equally important Security and Defence Partnership agreement between the two sides, and an MOU on comprehensive framework on cooperation on mobility, among others.
Prime Minister and President von der Leyen also addressed the India-EU Business Forum in Bharat Mandapam where more than 100 CEOs from both sides participated. The Business Forum comes at a timely moment, straight in the wake of the completion of negotiations of the India-EU FTA because we will need the businesses on the two sides to quickly translate the intention of the FTA into concrete outcomes.
The Hon’ble Vice President of India would also be meeting with both the distinguished guests, and later today President Costa and President von der Leyen will be calling on Rashtrapati Ji who will also host a banquet in honor of the visiting dignitaries.
Let me very quickly give you a broad context and flavor of this visit and the outcomes thereof. The outcomes are deeply strategic in nature, and I would urge you to look at each of the outcomes for its specific significance in the overall scheme of things between India and the European Union.
Over the last decade, relations between India and the European Union have grown steadily. They have grown not just in scale but in significance as well, as evidenced from the level and the frequency of contacts and engagements between the two sides. In our fast-changing world, the strategic partnership between India and the EU has a value beyond the bilateral context, particularly as we witness shifts in the global economic, technological, and strategic landscape.
As the world's second and fourth largest markets, India and the EU also have very high stakes on all critical global challenges of the day, including over-dependence and concentration of global manufacturing and supply chains on a limited set of geographies, an ineffective multilateral system, emerging multi-polarity, and growing protectionist tendencies in different parts of the world. And therefore as two large pluralistic democracies and open market economies, our leaders have resolved to take this very strategic partnership forward for mutual benefit and for the greater good of the global population as a whole.
Our relations got a very big boost last year with the historic visit of the EU College of Commissioners which facilitated a whole-of-government approach to our most immediate priorities, which include some of the outcomes today. And, in fact, we've seen very substantial outcomes today underlining the strategic importance that both sides attach to the bilateral relationship, and to further elevating the India-EU strategic partnership.
Today's summit, the 16th India-EU Summit, was held after a gap of about five and a half years, and as I said it is a milestone not only in terms of the outcomes but also the quality of the outcomes, but also their numbers and the potential impact that they have. The leaders announced the successful conclusion of negotiations of the India-EU FTA. Trade and economic ties are central to this strategic partnership.
EU as a bloc is one of the largest bilateral trading partners of India. Bilateral trade in 2024-25 was close to 136 billion dollars with Indian exports of 76 billion dollars and imports of 60 billion dollars. Services trade between the two sides is around 83 billion dollars. It is important to note that despite these obviously impressive numbers that are already there in the bilateral context, there has always been enormous room for growth in the bilateral relationship, room that was hitherto unexplored and which will now be leveraged to mutual benefit by the two sides.
A second very important outcome of today's meeting, especially in the overall strategic context of the relationship, is the EU-India Security and Defence partnership which was signed and exchanged today. While we have defence and security partnerships with several individual EU member states, this framework agreement on security and defence issues between India and the EU will be a first. It will bolster our engagements in maritime security, on defence industry, on cyber space and on counter-terrorism. Particularly, this would allow Indian defence companies to benefit from the opportunities arising from the EU's own very significant defence initiatives that are underway.
The two sides have also announced the launch of negotiations for a Security of Information Agreement, which again demonstrates the long-term and strategic view that the two sides are taking of their relationship.
A third outcome that I would want to invite your attention to is the document towards 2030, an India-EU Joint Comprehensive strategic agenda, which is a new roadmap to reinforce our strategic partnership and set the trajectory for advancing the relations across multiple pillars. These pillars include prosperity and stability, technology and innovation, security and defence, connectivity, and people to people ties for the next five years. I would urge you to go into the details of this particular roadmap to see the depth of intensity and the breadth of coverage that we intend to bring to this relationship.
Finally, the two sides also concluded an MOU on comprehensive framework on cooperation on mobility. This is again the first such mobility related agreement that we are concluding at the EU level. With any partner for the EU, this is a first with any partner for them. The MoU will facilitate and streamline safe regular migration, support skill development, and ease the movement of highly skilled workers, students, researchers, and seasonal workers who happen to be in occupations in demand between the two sides.
The two leaders in fact emphasized that some of the strongest relationships between India and Europe, are built by the people to people contacts. Today, the Indian diaspora in the EU is over a million people. Indian professionals in Europe are making notable contributions in several fields, including information technology, healthcare, engineering and finance. There are more than 100,000 Indian students in Europe who continue to pursue higher education in leading universities in the EU.
In addition to these agreements that I have outlined, there were a number of other important understandings that were reached. This includes the announcement of projects under the India - EU trilateral partnership, the renewal of the India - EU agreement for scientific and technological cooperation until 2030, the administrative arrangement on advanced e-signatures and seals, an MoU between the Reserve Bank of India and the European Securities and Market Authority, an administrative arrangement on cooperation in disaster risk management, and again very, very importantly, a decision to launch exploratory talks on the association of India with Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe is the world's largest public scientific research program, and India's association with this program can bring us great benefits in the future.
In addition, we've constituted an India - EU task force on green hydrogen and set up a EU pilot legal gateway office in India to enhance skill mobility and launch of negotiations, as I said earlier, for an India - EU Security of Information Agreement.
So to conclude, the visit of presidents Costa and Von Der Leyen to India is emblematic of our trusted and strategic partnership. We are confident that this visit will instill further momentum to deepening of India EU ties, create more business opportunities, lead to job creation, intensified cooperation in education and scientific research, opportunities for students, enhanced mobility for professionals and highly skilled workers, and open a new chapter in Security and Defence cooperation between India and the EU.
I want to end by citing two quotations from the leaders at the meeting. President Von Der Leyen said that the world is waiting for more from EU and India. So this was really an expression of the potential that is there in this deeply strategic relationship that the two sides are now beginning to explore much more fully.
And Prime Minister said during his intervention during the talks that the EU and India have put in place a blueprint for shared prosperity. I think these are the indicators of the sentiment behind the meeting today, again an indication of the strategic significance of this visit, and of the outcomes that have marked this visit. I'll stop here, Hon’ble Minister if you would like to brief further on the key outcome.
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: Thank you Vikram, and I'd like to begin by congratulating 1.4 billion brothers and sisters in India.
140 crore desh-vasiyo ko badhai dena chahunga.
Just like Foreign Secretary just articulated in great detail, this visit is extraordinary. It goes far beyond a Free Trade Agreement. It goes far beyond the humongous potential that is being unlocked with The Free Trade Agreement. It is truly a statement of deep partnership and the strategic intent of the European Union and India coming together in a multitude of areas to strengthen our partnership, to work together for the shared prosperity and a better future for one-third of humanity.
It is a reflection that when 25% of global trade decides to strengthen the strategic partnership, including with a Free Trade Agreement, it unlocks the doors to defence cooperation, greater investments, to cooperation in the field of innovation and science, to further integration of financial markets.
And therefore, I would term this visit, as very rightly pointed out by the Hon’ble Foreign Secretary, as game changing and transformational visit in terms of the strategic partnership between European Union and India. And therefore, I think congratulations are in order to Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, to H.E. Ms. Ursula Von Der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and H.E. Mr. Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council.
They have provided visionary leadership which has further been strengthened with colleagues from almost all parts of government in both the European Union and India. Everybody playing their role to prepare the roadmap and lay the foundation for a very powerful economic, geopolitical, and strategic partnership of the 21st century. We are also very pleased to have concluded negotiations on as Ms. Von Der Leyen herself has articulated, the mother of all deals, a Free Trade Agreement which covers 25% of global trade.
It is our eighth free trade agreement under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, each and every one of them with developed nations, and collectively reflecting an agreement between India and 36 developed nations, with these 27 of the European Union, four from the EFTA, 31 and six more … 37 developed nations and India have entered into free trade agreements in a short span of four years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Friends, this breakthrough in the EU-India trade relations comes after 20 years. You are all aware the discussions were launched in 2006, 16 rounds of negotiations were held. Sadly in 2013 efforts were aborted, and almost nobody ever imagined the European Union and India being able to come up with such a robust partnership framework as has been finalized by our leaders today.
In fact, when we relaunched negotiations in mid-2022 and laid the initial foundational work, prepared our game plan and way forward, we had elections in India and then in the European Union through 2024. So, the heavy lifting for this FTA really started after the historic visit of the European Union trade commissioners led by Ms. Von Der Leyen in February 2025. And, I think it's been the labor of love of the entire government in European Union and India, burning the midnight oil, persevering, working in a spirit of cooperation, India negotiating with self-confidence, both sides agreeing to focus on what is good for both set of countries, the European Union and India, leaving the sensitive issues aside and therefore coming up with a very balanced, equitable, and fair free trade agreement which is a win-win for all sections of industry both in India and European Union, opening up plethora of opportunities for investment, opening up markets which are complementary, with India gaining access significantly in labor-intensive industries like marine products, chemicals, footwear and leather, plastic rubber goods, textiles, apparel and clothing, gems and jewelry, furniture, sports goods, toys, and the European Union industries gaining access to the large and fastest growing economy of India in innovation, technology, sectors of precision engineering and areas where India continues to look for partnerships and technologies from across the world.
Friends, this agreement covers almost 99% of the total exports that are sent from India to the European Union, and about 97% plus of the total exports from European Union to India, something which is unprecedented and reflects the strength and the depth of this agreement.
We have tried to address the asymmetry in economic development between the two nations with different per capita incomes, with transitional periods, but ultimately focusing on the complementary strengths of both economies such that all 28 countries will stand to benefit.
Collectively, the European Union today imports nearly $6.5 trillion worth of goods and nearly $3 trillion worth of services. India plays a very small role in that. Our total exports are currently just about a percent and a half of the goods import into Europe and barely two and a half percent of the services import into Europe. With this massive opening up of opportunities… the European Union has also opened up many new sectors, India has opened up many new sectors in the services space, we can see a big thrust to the services sector.
As I said, on marine products, almost 94% of the tariff lines and almost the entire value of goods that are exported are going to get duty-free access. As I said before, areas like textiles, apparel, home decor, furnishing, where India has very serious labor-intensive interests, 100% of the European market will be open for business from day one. And, I can give you more details, but we have furnished those details to all the members of the press, whether it's furniture and lighting or other consumable goods, almost all of our exports are going to get duty-free access from day one. Likewise for toys, for sports goods, for railway components, aircraft parts, also in leather and footwear. These are areas which are of significant interest to India.
Similarly, India will open its doors for greater import of auto components, automobiles, wines, spirits and other areas of interest to the European Union, with both sides having ensured that sensitive items are kept out of the ambit or given sufficient transition period for adjustment of the industry and economic cycles. For example, from the context of the European Union, their interest was more in larger automobiles since they do not make automobiles which are under 15 or 20,000 euros in big measure.
We in India produce largely automobiles which are smaller in size and lower in cost. So, we've been able to come to a very amicable understanding where the auto industry in Germany is very happy getting greater access in a phased manner in areas of their interest, while Indian industry is very happy that we've been able to protect their areas of interest in the smaller and low-cost automobile sector. And this is the story that's been repeated in sector after sector.
So, I believe we are offering today to the world an agreement which is unprecedented in scale. In terms of market access, it'll support 'Make in India' and support industry in the European Union, it opens up plethora of opportunities for investments on both sides. We have seen large investments flow from Europe to India which can now grow manyfold. At the CEO business forum, one of our industry conglomerates was mentioning that they have already invested $70 billion in Europe.
And therefore, I see this as a partnership where both sides will get lot of opportunities in trade, in investment. It provides stability of policy, predictability of tariffs and rates, and it provides certainty to business which is the sine qua non to successful trade and engagement between two large economies.
Europe is, of course, a 20 trillion dollar plus economy. India, being the fastest-growing large economy, will become a 30 trillion dollar plus economy by 2047 and catch up very rapidly with the developed world, and together, we will work for the shared prosperity and a better future for 2 billion people in Europe and India.
Thank you very much, friends, and I look forward to a very successful journey through trade, through investments, through all the various areas articulated by the Foreign Secretary—be it mobility, be it our strategic and defence partnership, be it our innovation partnership, be it our partnership on scientific discovery, research and development, being our partnership to further our interests in multilateral organizations where we work together for the good of humanity.
Thank you very much.
Siddhant Sibbal, WION: Hi sir, my name is Siddhant Sibbal from WION. To the Minister sir: How do you see this FTA being implemented, any timeline? Because it has to go through a legal scrubbing through the parliament as well. And do you think that the signing of the FTA, whenever it happens, will give impetus to other FTAs including the US FTA? To the Foreign Secretary, sir: it is on the IMEC—how much the conversation was? And to the Commerce Secretary, sir: my question is, was CBAM part of it or is it excluded?
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: Well, I think every agreement stands on its own legs and this is a wonderful agreement. It'll be taken up for legal scrubbing on a fast-track basis as we discussed today and translated into 24 languages simultaneously. We do hope that we should be able to celebrate the entry into force of this agreement within calendar 2026 itself.
Shri Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary: I think on connectivity, on IMEC you mentioned …. connectivity is a very important thread in the agenda between India and the EU. And indeed, it was on the agenda today; there was a discussion about it.
And there was consensus on the fact that the IMEC initiative is one that should be taken forward and we should now graduate from the working level meetings that have taken place to higher-level meetings, culminating in a summit of the IMEC member countries. So, between Europe and India, we are united on this, and we will take this forward with the other collaborators within IMEC.
Siddhant Sibbal, WION: Sir, my question on CBAM?
Shri Rajesh Agarwal, Commerce Secretary: On CBAM, as you are aware, CBAM is a horizontal regulation which is applicable to all partner countries across the globe. Under FTA also, there are certain provisions that we have agreed under CBAM.
One, a technical dialogue has been agreed to be set up which will address the pathway for our industries to access the market in spite of the CBAM regulation being there. We'll be working together to see that the verifiers for CBAM in India are also accredited by the EU's agencies so that our industry are able to access them.
Two, we'll also be working together to see and understand the technical processes through which this CBAM measurement will be done in both the economies. And three, this group will also provide, that in whatever Indian carbon trading system comes into future, that will be also accounted for and plugged into their CBAM regulation to see that the industry which is part of the carbon trading pricing ecosystem in India, is accounted for. Their payments here or their carbon costs here are accounted for as part of the CBAM.
Further, to our larger comfort, they have given this commitment that in case they are able to bring in any flexibility under CBAM for any partner country across the world that will automatically flow out to India also. So, we do have a forward MFN commitment under that. Thank you.
Maria Tadeo, Euronews: Thank you very much. Maria Tadeo for Euronews. Minister, you have signed this deal now and both sides agree—which is rare these days—that this is a win-win situation for both. I was wondering, however, India and the European Union share the fact that both countries were really hit by tariffs, both the European Union and now India, to 50% from the Trump administration. So, I wonder how much of a unifier, beyond a win-win, was the US President?
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: I don't think we even discussed this at any point of time.
Pranay Upadhyay, India Today, Aaj Tak: Sir, Pranay Upadhyay from India Today, Aaj Tak. Mr. Minister, my question to you is that can you share your assessment about the possibility of job creation out of this FTA? In your assessment, how many jobs in India will be created after this FTA? And IPR has been a sticky point for Europe's investment in India. How this FTA going to allay or address the issue of IPR for the European investors in India?
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: First of all, in terms of job creation, most of us here are aware that the textile industry in India is the second-largest job creator after agriculture, with nearly 40 million jobs being created in the textile sector. I'm giving you a context how one should view this agreement.
India exports about 7 billion dollars worth of textiles and garments to the EU every year. And the duty rates are between anywhere up to 12% on the goods that we export to EU. Now earlier in the day, you used to always ask us, the press used to always ask us, that why is Bangladesh able to export 30 billion dollars worth of textiles and India is such a small player? Because Bangladesh, being a least developed country, LDC, had zero-duty access. And they were able to capture 30 billion out of the 250 billion dollar market of European Union in textiles alone.
Now we see before our eyes, a potential to grow from 7 billion to at least 30, 35, 40 billion very quickly, being an area of strength in India. And, you can imagine that if we add this kind of business only in the textile sector alone, just only in the textile sector alone, we are looking at close to six or seven million jobs coming into that sector. So, it has tremendous potential. The sectoral gains in various areas, particularly in the labor-intensive areas, give us tremendous potential for job creation in India.
Also, we had a discussion with our European friends. They have a lot of innovative technologies, modern technologies, very high-precision engineering work that is being done in factories in Europe for their own use and for the export market. But there are several markets, including India, where because of the high labor costs or the non-availability of adequate labor, they are not able to capture markets in many parts of the world like Africa, or Latin America, even Asia.
A joint partnership between Europe and India to co-produce, co-manufacture, and leverage the technologies of Europe and the skill and talent of India working together as partners will help European companies scale up, enjoy the fruits of economies of scale, enjoy the complementarity of our two economies, and create a large number of jobs both in European Union and in India.
So, to my mind, this is a huge boost, whether for our startups, whether for our sectoral interests, whether for the economy as a whole.
IPR... you are already aware the most litigious countries on IPR are Switzerland and UK. And we have already got an IPR in both the Free Trade Agreement that we've done with EFTA, four-nation EFTA block, and with the UK. So obviously, we have a very robust IPR chapter in the EU-India FTA also.
Rajesh, PTI: Sir, this is Rajesh from PTI. Sir, two small questions. Regarding CBAM, we have received certain commitments for CBAM in the FTA, but do we have any kind of provision, sir, where India can protect its domestic industry if EU will impose carbon tax under CBAM in the future? And second question is can we share some caps, like what kind of visa caps or visa numbers EU has committed under the FTA for students and IT professionals?
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: He has already responded on CBAM. As far as students are concerned, they're very keen in European Union to encourage Indian students in greater measure. We have 121,000 students from India already studying in EU, and there's no cap on the number of students.
They would like to welcome our students to come and study in the EU, just as we would like to welcome European universities to come and set up campuses in India. And I would love to see in the future, as we have discussed, joint degrees and our European young men and women coming and working in India so that they get a flavor of the growth engine that India is and become a part of the growth journey that India and Europe will share together.
Deepshikha, Economic Times: This is Deepshikha from Economic Times. Sir, could you share details on the totalization agreement because how will that play out? Will these be individual agreements separately done with the countries?
Shri Rajesh Agarwal, Commerce Secretary: On social security, normally Social Security Agreements are in the remit of the member states. They do not form under the remit of the European Commission. However, that's why you will see none of the EU FTAs have got any commitment under social security. This is the first FTA wherein we have brought in social security because this is an important need of India, and we have linked it to some of our forward MFN commitments under services.
For the first five years, these commitments will stand along with the nudge to the member states to move towards Social Security Agreements. These agreements naturally has to be done bilaterally. Today we already have with 14 out of 27 member states, and we hope in next five years we'll have with the remaining 13 also. Thank you.
Keshav Padmanabhan, The Print: Sir, thank you. Keshav Padmanabhan from The Print. And my question is to the Foreign Secretary. Sir, can you tell us or give us more details on the Security and Defence partnership? Would Indian companies now have the right to access the SAFE funding, which is roughly a 150 billion Euro funding that the EU announced last year for procurement? So, would Indian companies now have access to that?
And just a clarification on the mobility partnership, because mobility and immigration is a competence of the member states. So, can you give us a sense of what exactly are we looking at an EU level for mobility? Thank you.
Shri Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary: Thank you. So yes, you mentioned SAFE, which is the Security Action for Europe regulation, which is one of the emerging pillars of REARM Europe, which is something that was announced last year by the European authorities. So, there is obviously a resurgence or a renaissance, you might call it, of defence industry and the realization for defence preparedness in Europe, which means that there has to be preparation on the defence industrial front.
So, what our understanding, the India-EU Security and Defence partnership does, as I mentioned earlier, this is the first such overarching framework document for Security and Defence Cooperation between the two sides. It does certainly portend a strengthening and deepening of ties between India and EU in the domains of precisely defence industry cooperation. So, we would look over a period of time to be able to take part in these European initiatives with regard to defence industry.
The Prime Minister made the point today that India offered a viable alternative in so far as manufacturing location or development location for defence systems was concerned, and that the EU could, in a sense, get more bang for the buck for the money that it was putting behind programs such as SAFE in the context of REARM. But more than that, more than defence industry cooperation, the partnership also expands our cooperation into areas such as maritime security, into cyber, into space awareness, space situational awareness, space security itself, and very importantly for both sides, into counter-terrorism.
And all of these will entail increased engagements between two sides, increased engagements between the defence industries of the two sides. The Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers very recently undertook a very successful visit to Brussels to meet with their counterparts. So, I think, you know, thereby exploring opportunities for them to benefit from these various initiatives that are underway.
As I mentioned, today we've also announced the launch of negotiations on an Information Security Agreement. That'll be a complement to this, and once an Information Security Agreement comes into play, as you can imagine, the ground is prepared for more sensitive cooperation in the field of defence going forward.
And on the comprehensive framework for cooperation on mobility, yes, you're right. Mobility is a member state competence. It's not an EU competence. But what this MOU would do is that it would, in a sense, provide guidance and it would facilitate authorization of things like long-stay visas and residence permits for Indian nationals for the purpose of studies that Indian students might want to make for at least one year or for the duration of the studies where this is shorter. So, it's for that period and shorter where this framework would come into play. If there are longer frameworks, then of course they go back to individual member state competencies.
The same goes for research or for other types of hosting agreements. So, there are areas where applicable EU member state national laws will apply, and there are areas where this agreement will facilitate shorter-term programs.
Andres Schipani, Financial Times: Thank you. Andres Schipani, Financial Times. I had the same question as my colleague from Politico here. Building on what Commerce Secretary Agarwal said about CBAM, is... was Indian steel a big win for India in this trade deal?
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry: The European Union has come in with a new set of proposals on steel, and we have agreed in good faith to work together towards a very preferential treatment as a free trade agreement partner so that India gets a better deal than most other countries with whom the EU does not have an FTA. And I do believe that it will be resolved satisfactorily over a period of time since it has to go through the motions over the next six or eight months.
Mattia Bagnoli, ANSA: Thank you. Mattia Bagnoli, ANSA, the National Italian News Agency. I have a question on the defence partnership as well. You said that this partnership opens up the opportunity for scaling up cooperation with Europe on that sense. But are you ready then to scale back or scale down, so to speak, your cooperation with Russia in defence? Are these two things going sort of on track, on par, or are two completely separate things?
And secondly, President Costa mentioned at his presser that you also spoke about Ukraine, and I would like to know on your view on this. Was also that part of the conversation when we talk about defence and security? Thank you.
Shri Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary: So, on the Security and Defence Partnership, as you're aware, any agreement is entered into between two sides when both sides see mutual benefit in it. And there are mutual benefits in this agreement, there is mutual interest in this agreement, and there are advantages that both sides see by entering into this agreement, and that's why this agreement has been entered into today.
The issue about India's relationship with Russia is something on which we have spoken publicly on several occasions. There is a historical context for that. I don't think we have the time today to dilate on that. But these are two things that stand on their own and that go forward on their own.
In so far as Ukraine is concerned, yes, it was discussed between the leaders today. The European leaders shared their perspective, their concerns with regard to the ongoing conflict. And Prime Minister indicated to them that he had been in very close contact with leaders from both countries, from Russia as well as from Ukraine. We in India have always made our point of view very clear on this. We favor a negotiated solution between the parties most closely concerned with this conflict. The Prime Minister himself has played a role in this by advocating this to both leaders every time that he has met them. He has publicly stated that India is ready to do whatever is needed to be done in order to support the outcomes from such a negotiated solution and that we are interested in seeing the earliest possible cessation of this conflict that has been going for nearly four years now. So, these are the main points of the discussion on Ukraine.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. With that, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the close of this press conference. Thank you.
New Delhi
January 27, 2026