The first Ministerial meeting of the India-European Union (EU) Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was held in Brussels on 16 May 2023. The meeting was co-chaired by Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State, Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The European side was represented by High Representative/Vice-President European Commission (EC) Josep Borrell, European Commissioner Thierry Breton EC Executive Vice-Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis.[1] The meeting marks a significant milestone for India-EU relations and augurs well for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the negotiations of which were resumed last year after a gap of eight years.
Background
TTC was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen during the latter’s visit to India in April 2022. The objective of the TTC is to create a high-level coordination platform between the EU and India to deal with strategic challenges arising in the domain of trade, trusted technology and security. This approach is aimed at promoting a human-centric approach to digital transformation as well as to strengthen India-EU bilateral ties in these spheres. The introduction of this framework “reflects the strategic nature both sides attach to their bilateral relationship, the desire to guide their cooperation towards tangible results and the geopolitical significance of their trade and technology links in the context of a more contested and rapidly evolving international environment”.[2]
Ministerial meetings of the TTC rely on the preparatory work of the three working groups. These include Groups on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity; Green and Clean Energy Technologies; and Trade, Investment and Resilient value chains. India has expertise to share “in terms of innovation, production and deployment” in each of these areas. Moreover, the country also offers trained human resources for building these reliable and transparent networks.[3] In this context, the first Ministerial meeting laid down the roadmap for cooperation under these domains for the next one year until the Council meets again in 2024.
The TTC ministerial meeting showcases a unique format for collaboration and reflects the importance attached to strengthening cooperation by both New Delhi and Brussels. It is worth noting that the EU-India TTC is only the second bilateral forum for the EU (the first is EU-US TTC that was launched in June 2021) and the first one established with any partner for India. It runs parallel to the Digital Partnerships initiative of the EU which is focused on Asian partners as part of its Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.[4]
TTC and EU-India Strategic Partnership
Both India and EU regard each other as natural partners and share robust economic ties. The EU is India's 2nd largest trading partner and accounts for €120 billion worth of trade in goods. Its share was about 10.8 percent of total Indian trade in 2022. Similarly, India is the EU's 10th largest trading partner, and accounts for 2 percent of EU total trade in goods. Trade in services between the EU and India reached €40 billion in 2021.
The EU has acknowledged the growing heft of Indian economy and has noted that “the partnership with India is one of the most important relationships for the upcoming decade and strengthening this partnership, including through the TTC, is a priority”.[5] In this respect, forums such as TTC are positive steps towards early conclusion of FTA which will ultimately result in furthering economic ties between the EU and India.
The timely conclusion of the first TTC meeting also reflects a growing complementariness between the EU and India at a time when the world order is going through a major geopolitical flux. This can be deciphered from the wide range of discussions on India’s G20 presidency, Ukraine’s peace initiative, the expanding security & defence pillar of India-EU bilateral cooperation, and regional matters in the Indo-Pacific that were discussed on the sidelines of the TTC meeting.[6] Moreover, growing engagement between India and EU could also impact their respective dealings with China. For the EU in particular, dealing with China has been a complicated endeavour. In this respect, partnering with India helps Brussels to reduce “strategic risks” arising from its approach towards Beijing.[7]
Conclusion
The supply chain disruptions in light of the Covid 19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine have raised dual challenges of promoting responsible growth and ‘de-risking’ their economy from such incidents for both India and EU. As vibrant democracies and open market economies, both sides share fundamental values and similar sensibilities with respect to building reliable and resilient networks. In this respect, the TTC meeting is indicative of growing joint endeavours between New Delhi and Brussels to promote transparent and reliable supply chains to mitigate the impact of unforeseen disruptions. The EU’s approach is based on its calculation that close relations with India would reduce risks associated with its excessive dependence on China.
Overall, the TTC meeting is a significant milestone for the India-EU strategic partnership. While it reflects a focused approach to dealing with ongoing issues of global economy and security, it also carries positive implications for the conclusion of the India-EU FTA which would give a new momentum to India-EU economic ties in the coming years.
*****
*Dr. Himani Pant is a Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi
Views expressed are personal.
Endnotes
[1] First EU-India Trade and Technology Council focused on deepening strategic engagement on trade and technology, European Commission, 16 May 2023, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2728, Accessed on 18 May 2023.
[2] India – EU Joint Statement 1st Meeting of the Trade and Technology Council, Ministry of External Affairs, 16 May, 2023, https://mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/36553/India++EU+Joint+Statement+1st+Meeting+of+the+Trade+and+Technology+Council, Accessed on 18 May 2023.
[3] Opening Remarks by External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar at the India-EU Trade and Technology Council
May 16, 2023, Ministry of External Affairs, https://mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/36552/Opening+Remarks+by+External+Affairs+Minister+Dr+S+Jaishankar+at+the+IndiaEU+Trade+and+Technology+Council, Accessed on 18 May 2023.
[4] Ibid, note 1.
[5] First EU-India Trade and Technology Council focused on deepening strategic engagement on trade and technology, Delegation of the European Union to India and Bhutan, 17 May 2023, https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/india/first-eu-india-trade-and-technology-council-focused-deepening-strategic_en, Accessed on 18 May 2023.
[6] High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of European Commission, 17 may 2023, Twitter, https://twitter.com/JosepBorrellF/ status/1658560912582758411?s=20, Accessed o 18 May 2023
[7] Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission, How to deal with China, European Union External Action, 17 May 2023, https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/how-deal-china_en, Accessed on 18 May 2023.