An ambitious India-EU free trade agreement (FTA), negotiations for which were concluded in January, is expected to be formally signed by the end of the year during Ireland’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. The two sides have also been engaged in deepening cooperation in critical areas such as technology, defence and security against the backdrop of a more transactional approach adopted by the Trump administration in the US.

“The EU increasingly sees India as one of our most important strategic partners. Our presidency programme reflects that, highlighting both the importance of the Indo-Pacific and the priority attached to the EU’s relationship with India,” Irish ambassador Kevin Kelly told reporters at an event in New Delhi marking the start of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU.

Besides advancing the Council of the EU’s work in supporting progress on the EU-India FTA, the partnership with India “extends far beyond trade, to technology, research, climate action, connectivity, maritime security, resilient supply chains, and digital cooperation”, Kelly said. “We are vibrant democracies, major economic powers and increasingly indispensable partners in addressing global challenges.”

India and the EU are looking to sign the FTA — described by leaders on both sides as “the mother of all deal” — by December so that the deal can enter into force early next year.

At the same time, Kelly made it clear that Ireland will remain steadfast in its support for Ukraine, including backing “robust targeted sanctions against Russia”, working to advance Kyiv’s path to EU membership, and ensuring that Ukraine has “access to the finance it needs to defend itself against Russia’s ongoing illegal aggression”.

Ireland, he said, will also work with its European partners to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “We will push for sanctions against violent Israeli illegal settlers, and we will call for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and support a just and lasting peace that will hopefully lead to a two-state solution,” he said.

Kelly said there is a growing realisation on both sides that “what happens in Europe matters for India, and increasingly, what happens in India matters for Europe”. He said this points to both the strengthening of bilateral ties and an understanding that both sides are confronting the same challenges — “how to preserve openness, prosperity and cooperation in a world that has become more uncertain”.

He added, “Our future depends on working with trusted partners and India is unquestionably one of those.”

EU ambassador Herve Delphin, who also addressed the media, said Europe had been “exposed to the China shock” and is “facing an America which is more America first, more transactional, and certainly challenges the basic assumptions on which we base our trans-Atlantic relations”.

The EU and India, coming from different perspectives and geographies, have “recalibrated to this new world” and are focused on strategic autonomy, Delphin said. “Strategic autonomy doesn’t mean you do it all on your own…You are cooperating whenever you can, and you have to act autonomously whenever you must,” he argued.

In the context of the current focus of the world community on free and safe maritime passage following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Delphin said freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce were taken for granted as key elements of the globalisation of trade. “This is no longer normal…It started in the South China Sea. You saw it in Hormuz and you will see it somewhere else. I think that should invite the EU and India to really [have] a deeper reflection on the implications of this,” he said.