Towards 2030: A Joint European Union-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda

Towards 2030: A Joint European Union-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda

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... HomePress corner Towards 2030: A Joint European Union-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda

Available languages: Deutsch ( Maschinell übersetzte Fassung )Englishfrançais ( Traduction automatique ) Statement Jan 27, 2026 New Delhi 17 min read

Towards 2030: A Joint European Union-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda

This Joint EU-India Comprehensive Strategic Agenda, endorsed at the 16th EU-India Summit held on 27 January 2026 in New Delhi, aims to further reinforce the strategic partnership by broadening, deepening and better coordinating EU-India cooperation to deliver mutually beneficial, concrete and transformative outcomes for both partners and for the wider world.

The strategic agenda covers key areas: prosperity and sustainability, technology and innovation, security and defence, connectivity and global issues, reinforced by enablers across pillars. Building on more than 20 years of strategic partnership, it is a forward-looking action plan that reflects the commitment of both sides to work together in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment as trusted, predictable and like-minded partners.

1. PROSPERITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

1.1. Boosting Trade and Investment

1.1.1 Recognizing that trade and economic ties continue to shape the foundation of the EU-India bilateral partnership, the two sides reaffirm commitment to this vital pillar to strengthen trade linkages, investment avenues, and enhance global supply and value chains.

1.1.2 Hailing the EU-India Free Trade Agreement as a historic milestone in the strategic partnership, call for its timely implementation to further unlock immense opportunities as a driver of shared prosperity and resilience.

1.1.3 Conclude an Investment Protection Agreement to provide high, predictable standards of protection for investors on both sides, and promote investment in selected high-growth and future-oriented sectors.

1.1.4 Conclude an Agreement on Geographical Indications to ensure effective protection of iconic products and boost trade opportunities.

1.1.5 Following the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding on supervisory cooperation between the European Securities and Market Authorities and the Reserve Bank of India, enhance regulatory cooperation on financial services, including establishing a structured Regulatory Dialogue on Financial Services.

1.1.6 Deepen and broaden EU-India customs cooperation.

1.1.7 Strengthen the bilateral EU-India Macroeconomic Dialogue.

1.1.8 Scale up Team Europe Global Gateway investments in and with India, with the European Investment Bank (EIB) as a key partner.

1.2. Strengthening supply chains and economic security

1.2.1 Jointly assess external vulnerabilities and strategic trade opportunities. and expand collaboration in strategic value chains.

1.2.2 Engage in discussions on Blue Valleys for selected strategic value chains to accelerate private sector engagement through investment facilitation, standard alignment, and structured business collaboration.

1.2.3 Broaden discussions on economic security within the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to issues such as research security and protection of sensitive technologies.

1.2.4 Implement the EU-India Semiconductor Memorandum of Understanding, strengthen the resilience of semiconductor supply chains and promote mutually beneficial collaboration in research and development for chip design, heterogeneous integration, sustainable semiconductor technologies and technology development for semi-conductor manufacturing.

1.2.5 Develop further cooperation to scale up climate action in the light of national circumstances, including in all relevant energy sectors.

1.2.6 Deepen collaboration, including through a joint reflection paper, on early warning systems for active pharmaceutical ingredients, contingency planning in agrifood supply chains, and to advance bio-manufacturing and other areas of biotechnology.

1.2.7 Cooperate with the aim of developing resilient, secure and diversified critical minerals supply chains for energy transition and sustainable industrial ecosystems.

1.3. Advancing the clean transition and resilience

1.3.1 Strengthen cooperation under the EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership, including through energy technologies, smart grids, storage, electricity sector regulation, energy and climate diplomacy.

1.3.2 Reactivate the Joint Working Group on Energy Security under the EU-India Energy Panel which would inter-alia focus on dialogue on diversifying reliable and affordable energy sources and strengthen co-operation to promote energy efficiency improvement across sectors.

1.3.3 Organise an EU-India Wind Business Summit to foster business and expert exchanges on wind energy technologies, know-how, auction design, tendering, investment and financing, research and innovation, and testing and demonstration facilities.

1.3.4 Operationalise the EU-India Task Force on Green Hydrogen to foster cooperation on hydrogen production, storage, and distribution to support efforts to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors.

1.3.5 Explore further cooperation in sustainable mobility including Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), Compressed Biogas (CBG), as well as on vehicles' energy certification methodologies, e-mobility, and electric vehicle charging standards.

1.3.6 Pursue cooperation in the railway sector for the adoption of advanced rail standards focusing on High Speed, decarbonisation, digitalisation and automation of operation and Maintenance activities.

1.3.7 Pursue cooperation to support sustainable ship recycling activities, especially through the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and inclusion of Indian ship recycling yards which comply with the European Union Regulation on Ship Recycling in its list of ship recycling facilities.

1.3.8 Deepen cooperation under the EU-India Partnership on Smart and Sustainable Urbanisation including by furthering city-to-city cooperation and exchanges as well as investments.

1.3.9 Advance collaboration on sustainable finance instruments and corporate sustainability, including under the EU's Global Green Bonds Initiative.

1.3.10 Work together to make power markets stronger, using tools such as contracts for difference, smart meter insights, and offtake agreements. Team up to make offtake deals easier and share know-how on technologies like electrolysers, fuel cells, and energy storage.

1.3.11 Cooperate on efforts towards industrial decarbonisation of heavy hard to abate energy intensive industries, including through exchanging best practices on low-carbon materials definitions such as steel and cement, while ensuring a level playing field.

1.3.12 Work towards sharing experiences on the design and implementation of India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), and the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and exploring further cooperation.

1.3.13 Deepen cooperation on climate adaptation and resilience for preventing and reducing climate risks, improving disaster preparedness and response capabilities, and strengthening infrastructure resilience, including through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).

1.3.14 Deepen collaboration on water resilience and security within the India–EU Water Partnership through organisation of regular EU-India Joint Working Group on Water Cooperation.

1.3.15 Reinforce the Resource Efficiency & Circular Economy Partnership, including by establishing an EU-India Joint Working Group on Circular Economy.

1.3.16 Further strengthen exchanges through the bilateral Dialogue on Environment and explore options to resume the EU-India Environmental Forum to facilitate exchanges between government and business stakeholders.

1.3.17 Support sustainable agriculture and foster sustainable agrifood systems including through establishment of an Agrifood Policy Partnership Dialogue.

1.3.18 Advance bilateral cooperation on health including disease prevention, vaccines, preparedness, sharing of epidemic intelligence, wastewater surveillance, information and knowledge sharing and responsible data-sharing; enhance collaboration between disease control centres; and support sustainable and resilient health systems.

1.3.19 Implement the Administrative Arrangement on cooperation in disaster risk management to strengthen cooperation through policy dialogue, technical engagement, knowledge sharing, early-warning and emergency response.

2. TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

2.1 Supporting critical emerging technologies

2.1.1 Promote collaborative research focused on artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, advanced semiconductors, clean tech and biotech.

2.1.2 Set up EU-India Innovation Hubs, to support dialogue, knowledge exchange, and joint projects in critical emerging technologies, by bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, startups, investors, as well as civil society experts to identify shared priorities and catalyse innovation.

2.1.3 Advance promising technologies from early-stage collaboration to promote industrial deployment and accelerate private-sector engagement.

2.1.4 Establish an EU-India Startup Partnership in collaboration with the European Innovation Council, Start-up India, and Member States, to promote cross-border investment, co-creation, and deep-tech scale-ups between European and Indian SMEs, incubators and start-ups.

2.1.5 Cooperate on mutually beneficial research and development, reciprocal talent exchanges, and technological development of advanced semiconductors, focusing on design and prototyping for AI applications, leveraging inter alia Indian design strengths and EU research infrastructures.

2.1.6 Cooperate on strategic AI domains, including large language models, multilingual natural language processing datasets, AI training datasets, and AI solutions for public goods such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate action.

2.1.7 Develop trustworthy, sustainable, human-centric AI, including by strengthening collaboration between the European AI Office and India's National AI Mission and India AI Safety Institute to expand AI safety, testing, and evaluation.

2.1.8 Expand joint activities under the EU-India Intent of Cooperation (IoC) on High-Performance Computing (HPC) to include reciprocal access to facilities, common benchmarking standards, co-developed applications in simulation, optimisation, and machine learning, researcher exchanges, joint doctoral programmes, and co-funding to accelerate hybrid workflows from proof-of-concept to production.

2.1.9 Deepen cooperation, through the EU-India Space Dialogue, in space technology including on earth observation, satellite navigation, space surveillance, and communication and advance collaboration including on space security.

2.1.10 Jointly undertake robust measures to protect critical technologies.

2.1.11 Pursue the ongoing dialogue on harmonising charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

2.2 Advancing a conducive digital environment

2.2.1 Deepen cooperation to create a trustworthy, secure, fair, and interoperable digital ecosystem, including by strengthened regulatory collaboration.

2.2.2 Strengthen engagements on robust data protection frameworks.

2.2.3 Promote fair digital markets, secure e-commerce, online privacy, legal certainty, product safety, corporate sustainability, and child protection, while combating illegal content and systemic risks in compliance with applicable national and international laws.

2.2.4 Strengthen mutual experience sharing on universal, meaningful, robust and secure digital infrastructure and collaborate to develop and promote secure and trusted telecommunications ecosystems including under the Memorandum of Understanding between India's Bharat 6G alliance and the EU's 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association.

2.2.5 Establish structured mechanisms for capacity building cooperation, knowledge sharing, and expert exchange programmes aimed at fostering innovation, standardisation, and inclusive digital growth.

2.2.6 Collaborate on digital public infrastructure (DPI), leveraging experience in e-Governance solutions, policies and standards and large-scale platforms to support financial inclusion, digital identity, and efficient public service delivery, and promote deployment of joint DPI solutions in third countries.

2.2.7 Explore technical interoperability, such as between the European Digital Wallet and India's Digital Wallet, to facilitate cross-border trade, travel and data exchanges.

2.2.8 Implement the Administrative Arrangement on Advanced Electronic Signatures and Seals.

2.3 Promoting research cooperation

2.3.1 Deepen cooperation under the EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe, including in the fields of digital, energy, water, agrifood, health, semiconductors, biotech, advanced materials, particularly through mechanisms such as co-funding and coordinated calls.

2.3.2 Explore options for association of India to Horizon Europe to enable Indian researchers and institutions to participate on an equal footing with European partners in collaborative projects across the wide range of fields covered by the programme.

2.3.3 Promote collaboration on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy under the India-Euratom agreement on research and development activities in nuclear science and technology, advanced materials for detectors, radiation safety, nuclear security, non-power applications of atomic energy including cooperation on radio-pharmaceuticals and strengthen cooperation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

2.3.4 Establish and implement a comprehensive semiconductor collaboration framework encompassing joint research and development, reciprocal talent and skill exchanges, advanced semiconductor manufacturing and packaging, and strategic partnerships for resilient supply chain, thereby strengthening global ecosystem for advanced semiconductors focusing on design and prototyping for AI applications.

3. SECURITY AND DEFENCE

3.1 Bilateral cooperation

3.1.1 Implement the EU-India Security and Defence Partnership (SDP) to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in security and defence, including maritime security, defence indust