2025 has seen significant progress in EU-India relations. But while both sides are keen to deepen technology cooperation, particularly through a “full-stack” approach to de-risk supply chains and foster joint innovation in areas like semiconductors, AI, and 6G., ECDPM has been busy on the trickier side of any growing relationship: facilitating the mutual dialogue and shared understanding necessary to transform ambition into a durable, equitable reality.
This year has so far turned out to be an annus mirabilis in the EU-India relationship. Volatile geopolitics and geoeconomics have created a shared imperative for the EU and India to bolster cooperation on national security and economic competitiveness. The pace of official exchanges has catapulted in 2025: it is now crucial to prioritise exchanges with think tanks, academics and the private sector to drive forward the partnership, notably on technology.
In February, the EU demonstrated its seriousness about the partnership with an unprecedented visit of the entire College of Commissioners to New Delhi. This was followed by the publication of its Joint Communication on a New Strategic EU-India Agenda in September 2025, as well as the flurry of exchanges and political pressure in recent weeks to finalise the Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
In response, India has shifted its views of the relationship with Europe, especially after the February visit. With contentious tariff negotiations and foreign policy resets dominating the India-US relationship, Europe is increasingly viewed as an important destination and reliable partner for both Indian companies and highly skilled talent. In fact, Indian companies are increasingly looking to expand in Europe – the value of mergers and acquisitions into Europe by Indian firms reached $5.7 billion in 2025, more than any other full year since 2020.
On technology, the EU’s vision of “open strategic autonomy” demands that it should build partnerships with key countries like India, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and others in a spirit of strategic interdependence. As the EU seeks to derisk its industrial supply chains and deepen alliances, the time is ripe for deepening people-to-people exchanges, notably by launching a dialogue between key stakeholders on EU-India technology policy.
It takes more than diplomatic meetings to create a strong partnership between two powers. Even as EU-India official exchanges gather momentum, European and Indian societies do not know each other well, without meaningful exchanges and dialogue at the societal level, with few universities or think tanks on either side having deep knowledge of the history, politics and regulatory culture of the other side.
Meanwhile, despite growing private sector exchange, the potential for joint innovation and investment is still vastly underexplored. Deepening relations between the EU and India will require a major expansion of knowledge and exchange between the policy and business ecosystems.
There is growing support on both sides for expanding EU-India exchanges from regular meetings between the bureaucracies to broader stakeholder platforms, involving think tanks, academia, civil society and industry. A similar process took place alongside the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in the past.
About the author:
Gautam Kamath is an independent policy consultant based in Brussels and an Associate in ECDPM’s digital economy and governance team.
Chloe Teevan is the head of ECDPM’s digital economy and governance team.