India’s Six broad principles for strengthening trade and investment with European Union (EU)

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Outlined by Minister of Commerce and Industry, they tend to build a mutually beneficial partnership between the two.

The Six Broad Principles

Focus on common values of democracy, rule of law and independent judiciary.
Build a commercially meaningful, fair and equitable trade agenda, addressing trade barriers.
Exchange best practices and harmonizing standards to achieve zero defect and zero effect production capability.
Develop cutting edge technologies, secure critical raw material supply chains and build resilient supply chain.
Cooperation in trade and sustainable development conforming to Common But Differentiated Responsibility.
Partnership in mutual growth and development.

Concerns regarding China: Issues like China’s global expansion via the Belt and Road Initiative, military adventurism in Asia, misuse of the multilateral trading system, etc.
Economic De-risking: India has a large and growing trade deficit with China and is heavily dependent on it for strategically important inputs.
Critical and Emerging Technologies: EU could offer attractive capabilities in emerging domains like Cyber, Space, Quantum technology, Synthetic biology, etc.

Background: India- EU Strategic Partnership signed in 2004.
- Adoption of EU-India Joint Action Plan in 2005 dealing with political, economic, and development cooperation.
Economic Relations: Bilateral trade estimated at over $180 billion in 2023-2024.
- EU is a significant source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with total FDI estimated at $117.34 billion.
Challenges with Bilateral Relations: Non conclusion of EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) disagreements over labour and environmental standards, etc.