EU and India sign trade deal, 15 years in the making, ushering in a 'multidimensional relationship'

Delano D'Souza welcomes Dr Chietigj Bajpaee, Senior Research fellow for South Asia in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. The recently agreed EU–India trade deal represents a geopolitical and economic milestone. After 15 years of negotiations, the agreement aims to reduce tariffs on a wide array of goods, deepen economic ties, and broaden cooperation beyond trade into mobility and technology. All the while, politically sensitive sectors like agriculture were excluded and broader strategic tensions, especially India’s relationship with Russia, cast a dark shadow. At its core, this deal reflects longstanding partnership ambitions coupled with added pressures from global economic competition.