Considerable progress made in trade talks with EU: Foreign Secretary Misri

India is pushing hard to conclude the EU trade deal to diversify export markets as pressure builds elsewhere, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said after Modi-Merz talks

A considerable amount of progress has been made in the discussions on the India-European Union (EU) trade deal, with New Delhi investing much effort to expand the country’s export markets since markets elsewhere have come under pressure, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in Ahmedabad on Monday.

 

Addressing a press briefing in the afternoon following talks between visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Misri said he hasn’t had the opportunity to look at the comments made by new US ambassador Sergio Gor in New Delhi in the morning. Earlier in the day, Gor said at the US Embassy in the national capital that India and the US are actively negotiating a trade deal, with a key call scheduled for Tuesday.

 

 

At his meeting with the PM, the German Chancellor said his country strongly supported the early conclusion of the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA), and urged both sides to “urgently conclude” it. Later, Misri said the India-EU FTA is likely to be signed later this month during the India visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.

 

The foreign secretary said the two deals — the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) and the India-EU FTA — stand on their own, but “it is a fact that the India-EU FTA has been under discussion for a long time”, and that there is “no doubt that on account of developments in recent years, the urgency for concluding this FTA has increased”. Without specifically mentioning, he was alluding to the pressure on Indian exports because of the White House imposing 50 per cent additional tariff on Indian goods.

 

Misri said the EU’s College of Commissioners paid an “unprecedented visit” to India in February 2025 during which “a political decision was taken at the highest level to expedite the conclusion of the India-EU FTA”. Since then several intense rounds of negotiations have taken place, including six physical rounds and several virtual rounds, and “as a result, a considerable amount of progress has been made” in the negotiations for the India-EU FTA. He said it “certainly” is an “effort” on India's part to “look at expanding our markets even as markets elsewhere come under pressure”.

 

The foreign secretary said, and as the PM also noted during his statement, the EU is a very large trading partner for India, but there is much more potential and scope to increase that trade, and the India-EU FTA, once concluded, would help in that.

 

He said that discussions with the US on the India-US trade deal are continuing. “We remain engaged with them,” he said, adding “there is no real connection between the two” trade deals, that is the India-EU FTA and India-US BTA, and “we are taking these forward as independent enterprises”.