Europe and India can build a partnership that is “predictable”, Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, said on Tuesday (January 27, 2026), taking aim at the U.S., Russia, and China for increasing uncertainty in the world.

Ms. Kallas said that during the EU-India Summit on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Antonio Costa, the EU had asked India to “put pressure” on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

India-EU Summit updates on January 27, 2026

Speaking at a think-tank event here, shortly after the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) and Strategic and Defence Partnership (SDP) were announced, Ms. Kallas said the U.S.’s “tariff threats”, China’s “economic coercion”, and the “existential threat” to Europe from Russia were all common challenges.

Ms. Kallas, who was Estonia’s Prime Minister (2021-2024), is known for her outspoken views, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In September 2025, Ms. Kallas had said that India’s participation in the Zapad military exercises and its imports of Russian oil “stand in the way of closer ties” between New Delhi and Brussels.

Accusing Russia of refusing to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine and of bombing civilian targets, Ms. Kallas said that Moscow wanted to “push Ukrainian people to surrender”.

“What we have asked our Indian colleagues is to put pressure on the Russians so that they would also want peace, because this war is not good for Europe or for the [Global South] and that is an area of convergence for EU and India is that we both want sustainable peace”.

On Sunday, the Kremlin spokesperson had said that ceasefire talks in Abu Dhabi between Russia and Ukraine were under way, but that European leaders, particularly Ms. Kallas, would not be included in the talks.

Calling for India and the EU to cooperate on the Indo-Pacific, the EU top diplomat criticised China’s “weaponisation of trade” and highlighted the need for open sea lanes.

“[EU and India] both face economic coercive practices coming from China and to address this alone, we are both weak. But together we are much stronger [and can] stand up to this,” Ms. Kallas said, adding that if companies were “hit” by Chinese practices, prosperity would also suffer, and the EU-India FTA would help the two countries cooperate against this, and shore up the multilateral world order.

“When I go around the world, I see more and more countries want to build partnerships with Europe, because we are predictable, and that has become something of value,” Ms. Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President, said speaking at the Delhi-based Ananta Centre.

Referring to President Donald Trump’s imposition of new duties, without naming the U.S., she said that the “constant threat of tariffs” and the reversal of signed agreements “by an executive order” had created pressure on companies around the world.

She stressed that India and the EU must “build confidence” and work on trade, security, defence and foreign policy together. “[EU members] take a long time to negotiate an agreement, but when we do, we stick to them and actually implement them,” she said.

Ms. Kallas said it was time for India and the EU to cooperate on defence hardware as well.

“There is an interest in our EU member states for cooperation with the Indian defence industry, because we have these existential threats coming from Russia,” she said. “We have our member states increasing their defence expenditure… if European industries cannot deliver, we can buy from outside,” she said, adding that India and the EU could work together, not only on defence hardware, but maritime exercises, cybersecurity, and hybrid threats.

Published – January 27, 2026 08:28 pm IST

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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