Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, arrived in New Delhi on a state visit on Saturday. She was received by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada.
European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and von der Leyen are the chief guests for the 77th Republic Day celebrations on Monday. It will be followed by the India-EU summit and the signing of a trade deal.
“We are on the cusp of a historic trade agreement (with India),” von der Leyen said this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has called the upcoming FTA “the mother of all deals” as Brussels and New Delhi seek to open up new markets in the face of US tariffs and Chinese export controls.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met ambassadors from the EU countries and called for collaboration to “derisk the world economy” in the face of erratic US policies. He said stronger India-EU ties will derisk the world economy by cooperating on resilient supply chains, reassure the international community by providing public goods like HADR, anti-piracy operations, and development projects, and stabilise the global order through stronger trade, mobility and security partnership.
Both sides have been at the receiving end of US president Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies. India faces the highest tariff rate of 50% on its exports to the US, while the EU is yet to ratify a trade deal with Washington widely criticised for being lopsided.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has called India “indispensable” to Europe’s economic and strategic future. The 27-nation bloc has moved forward with a new security and defence partnership with India.
Together the EU and India account for about a quarter of the world’s population and GDP. Bilateral trade in goods reached 120 billion euros ($139 billion) in 2024, an increase of nearly 90% over the past decade, according to EU figures, with a further 60 billion euros ($69 billion) in trade in services.
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