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European Council President António Luís Santos da Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit India for the 16th India-EU summit on January 27 and also participate in the Republic Day parade as chief guests a day earlier, said the government in an official announcement. The summit will be the culmination of months of hard work by both sides to ramp up bilateral ties that has seen the EU finalising a new strategic agenda for India amidst mounting global uncertainties and its own rupturing transatlantic alliance. Both sides are currently scrambling to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA) that tops the list of expected deliverables from the summit, along with a formal EU-India defence and security partnership to facilitate defence industrial cooperation despite friction over India’s ties with Russia. According to the EU, trade, security, defence, clean transition and people-to-people contact will top the agenda of the discussions. “India is a crucial partner for the EU. Together, we share the capacity and responsibility to protect the rules-based international order. This meeting will be a key opportunity to build on our partnership and drive progress in our cooperation,” said Costa. This will also be the first time that the leaders will attend the Republic Day parade celebrations as guests of honour signalling, according to the 27-nation bloc, the strengthening of the bilateral relationship between the EU and India. “In October 2025, the Council of the EU endorsed the new strategic EU-India agenda, and its objective of further developing EU-India ties. In so doing, it placed specific focus on prosperity and sustainability, technology and innovation, security and defence, and connectivity and global issues,” it said in a simultaneous announcement about the visit. On the trade front, both sides have found differences related to critical areas like cars, steel and EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a carbon tax on certain goods, the hardest to address. Foreign secretary Vikram Misri had said last week that the CBAM issue was being discussed and India’s effort is to ensure that all its interests are safeguarded when the FTA is finalised. Brussels also wants commitment to the Paris Agreement, the international treaty for climate action, enshrined in the FTA even though India sees it as a sovereignty issue that should not be mixed with trade. Both sides are hoping political intervention at the highest level will help break this deadlock. “India and EU are strategic partners since 2004. The 15th India-EU Summit was held virtually on 15 July 2020. Bilateral ties have expanded and deepened across a wide range of areas, particularly following the historic visit of EU College of Commissioners to India in February 2025,” said the Indian government, adding that the visit will advance cooperation in areas of mutual interest. Progress is also expected in efforts by the EU to advance, within the IMEC framework, the EU-Africa-India Digital Corridor through a submarine cable system connecting Europe to India via the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Eastern Africa. This EU initiative, as the new strategic agenda says, will provide ultra- high-speed, secure, and diversified data connectivity resilient to disruptions caused by natural disasters or acts of sabotage.
