India expects FTA with EU to be ‘game-changer’: S Jaishankar

India expects its proposed free trade agreement with the European Union to be a "game changer" and looks forward to a mutually beneficial conclusion to the pact's negotiation process in a "short planned time frame", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said. Tuesday.

Speaking at an event at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Jaishankar also said that Europe and India can strengthen each other's strategic autonomy by reducing dependencies, collaborating on critical technologies and ensuring supply chain restructuring. We expect the India-EU FTA to be a game-changer in the India-EU relationship. We look forward to a mutually beneficial, mutually beneficial conclusion to the negotiation process in a reasonably short planned time frame," he said.

In June last year, India and the European Union resumed talks on a long-pending trade and investment agreement after more than eight years. Negotiations on the proposed agreement, which began in June 2007, witnessed many obstacles as the two sides had major differences on key issues. "India's new approach to trade deals addresses issues of non-tariff and cross-border barriers, quality standards and related benchmarks," Jaishankar said. “With like-minded partners, we have really demonstrated rapid change in our FTA negotiation processes in recent years. Free trade agreements with the UAE and Australia were concluded in record time,” he said. Foreign barriers are non-tariff discriminatory trade barriers within a country.

“Europe and India can enhance each other's strategic autonomy by reducing dependencies; collaboration on critical technologies; and ensuring supply chain restructuring. India-EU FTA is therefore a very important goal of ours,” Jaishankar said.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said the recently introduced Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will provide structure and strategic guidance to the partnership between the two parties. The TTC is expected to facilitate the exchange of critical technologies across a range of domains, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors and cyber security.

The TTC with India is the second such technology partnership of the European Union, after the first partnership with the United States, which was confirmed in June 2021. “I would like to say that India's relations with Europe are stronger and deeper than ever before and this event itself is a testimony to that statement, ” said Jaishankar. "Between us lies the largest democratic and free market space in the world. The business communities in India and Europe have a big stake and a helping role in this transformation,” he said.