India-EU summit begins on Tuesday, to focus on security and defence ties

India and the European Union will unveil a Security and Defence Partnership at the 16th India-EU Summit, alongside progress on a free trade agreement, mobility framework & wider strategic cooperatio

India and the European Union (EU) will upgrade their strategic partnership, signed in 2004, by inking a pact on Security and Defence Partnership (SDP), which is set to look at possibilities of Indian participation in European defence initiatives. 

On Tuesday, at the 16th India-EU summit, the EU leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, will have restricted and delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

An India-EU Business Forum, on the sidelines of the India-EU summit, will also be held. The broad focus of the summit will be on trade, defence and security, climate change, critical technologies, and strengthening the rules-based global order. Besides firming up the free-trade agreement (FTA), the two sides are set to unveil the defence-framework pact and a strategic agenda. 

 

The India-EU summit is co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. The last summit was held virtually in July 2020. The India-EU leaders’ meeting, with the participation of leaders of the 27 EU member states, was organised in Porto, Portugal, where the Prime Minister participated virtually, in May 2021. 

The two sides are also looking at a Security of Information Agreement (SOIA), and a mobility agreement. The two sides are expected to ink agreements in other sectors, and deliberate on the Russia-Ukraine war and the situation in West Asia. 

As for the trade deal, the EU and India had first launched negotiations for an FTA in 2007, before the talks were suspended in 2013 due to a gap in ambition. The negotiations were re-launched in June 2022. 

Over the years, India-EU ties have grown, and covered trade, investment, climate change, science and technology, space, digital, mobility, and connectivity.  In February last year, the EU College of Commissioners, headed by von der Leyen, visited New Delhi. It was the first ever such visit to a bilateral partner outside Europe. Von der Leyen, along with Charles Michel, then President of the European Council, had visited India in September 2023 for the G20 summit. She had also paid an official visit to India in April 2022. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Brussels in June last year for the first edition of the India-EU Strategic Dialogue, while Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was there in January. EU Commissioner for Trade Marcos Sefcovic was in India in December 2025. In October 2025, Goyal met the EU commissioner for economy and productivity in Berlin. In September 2025, the EU commissioners for trade and agriculture visited India and met Goyal. 

Apart from trade and defence, the third phase of India EU Clean Energy and Climate Partnership (CECP), established in 2016, was adopted in November 2024.  The EU has been a partner organisation to the International Solar Alliance since 2018, and joined the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in March 2021. 

The European Investment Bank supports India’s climate and energy transition by financing projects in sustainable transport and urban mobility such as urban rail, and metro in some of the Indian cities. Other areas of cooperation between India and the EU include offshore wind energy, developing gas infrastructure in India, reducing methane emission, investment, and transfer of technology. 

An agreement on research and development cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy was signed between India’s Department of Atomic Energy and EURATOM in July 2020. The India-EU Connectivity Partnership was launched in 2021 and focuses on transport, digital, energy networks, and flow of people, goods, services, data and capital. In June 2025, both sides agreed on an administrative arrangement for trilateral development cooperation on joint projects in third countries. 

Bilateral science and technology cooperation comes under the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2007. A joint steering committee oversees and advances scientific cooperation projects in areas such as smart grids, water, vaccines, polar science, and the mobility of young scientists working with European Research Council. 

Under the India-EU Water Partnership (IEWP), adopted in 2016, a joint working group on water discusses latest developments on water policies. The sixth EU-India Water Forum was held in New Delhi in September 2024. 

In space cooperation, in February 2025, the EU commissioner for defence and space met the minister of state for science and technology in New Delhi to discuss further cooperation. The inaugural India-EU Space Dialogue took place in Brussels in November 2025. In May 2025, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the European Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent on cooperation for human space exploration. 

On migration and mobility, the ninth India-EU High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Mobility (HLDMM) took place in New Delhi in November 2025.