India and Europe have made a “clear choice” to build a strategic partnership by leveraging their complementary strengths to show a new way of engagement to a “fractured world”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday ahead of summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
European Council President Antonio Costa and von der Leyen will be the chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations on Monday.
At the India-EU summit on Tuesday, the two sides are set to announce the conclusion of negotiations for the much-awaited free trade deal besides firming up a series of other ambitious initiatives.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, after a meeting with the two top European Union (EU) leaders, on Sunday hoped that the India-EU summit will herald a “new chapter” in the two-way ties.
“India and Europe have made a clear choice. The choice of strategic partnership, dialogue and openness. Leveraging our complementary strengths. And building mutual resilience,” Von der Leyen said on social media.
“We are showing a fractured world that another way is possible,” she said.
Costa described India as a “crucial partner for the EU”. “Together, we share the capacity and responsibility to protect the rules-based international order,” he was quoted by the EU in a brief statement.
It said the summit will offer an opportunity to build on the EU-India strategic partnership and further strengthen collaboration across key policy areas such as trade, security and defence, clean transition and people-to-people cooperation.
In a social media post, Jaishankar said it is a “great privilege” to have the two EU leaders as chief guests for the 77th Republic Day celebrations.
“Confident that their upcoming discussions with Prime Minister @narendramodi will herald a new chapter in India-European Union relations,” he added.
At the summit, India and the EU are also set to firm up a strategic defence partnership pact and a framework for mobility of Indian professionals.
While von der Leyen landed in New Delhi on Saturday, Costa arrived here on Sunday.
India and the EU are on the cusp of a “historic trade agreement” that would create a market comprising two billion people accounting for almost a quarter of the global GDP, von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 20.
The relations between India and the EU have been on an upswing in the last few years.
The EU, as a bloc, is India’s largest trading partner in goods. For financial year 2024-25, India’s total trade in goods with the EU was worth about $136 billion, with exports around $76 billion, and imports at $60 billion.
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