1st Ministerial meeting of India-EU Trade and Technology Council

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The first ministerial meeting of the India and the European Union Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will be held in Brussels on 16 May.

An overview of the news

• The meeting will be co-chaired by the Ministers of External Affairs, Commerce and Industry and Communications, Electronics and Information Technology from the Indian side.

• India is only the second country after the US with which the European Union (EU) has a TTC, and the two sides agreed to launch the strategic mechanism during the visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to India in April 2022.

• The TTC aims to deepen trade and investment ties between India and the European Union, as well as foster greater cooperation on technology and innovation.

About India-EU Trade and Technology Council 

• The trade and technology council was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during Ms Leyen's visit to India in April 2022.

Three Working Groups under the TTC

1. A Working Group on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity

2. A Working Group on Green and Clean Energy Technologies 

3. A Working Group on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains

India-EU Trade relation

• India is the 10th largest trading partner of the European Union, accounting for 2.1% of the total trade in goods.

• The EU is India's third largest trading partner, accounting for €88 billion in goods trade in 2021 or a little over 10% of total Indian trade.

• Trade in services between the two sides reached €30.4 billion in 2020.

About European Union

• The European Union is a group of 27 European countries.

• The United Kingdom which was the founding member of the European Union has left the organisation.

• It was founded on 1 November 1993

• Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium