India, EU to restart trade talks in Brussels today

INDIA AND THE European Union (EU) will get back to the negotiating table in Brussels on Monday for the 14th round of talks on their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for the last-lap push to conclude it before the December 2025 deadline.

- MUKESH JAGOTA

Officials from both sides have held meetings almost every second month since the deadline was announced. The last round, the 13th since the negotiations began in July 2022, was held from September 8 to September 12.

During that round the EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic and the agriculture commissioner Christophe Hensen were also in New Delhi to guide the negotiations and break any deadlock that would have arisen.

“Their high level interactions with Indian authorities were useful to understand each sides position but did not allow them to make sufficient progress in sensitive areas such as automobiles and agriculture products,” the EU’s report on the round stated.