The India-European Union Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will hold its first ministerial meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting will review, among other things, the status of the FTA negotiations, deal with issues of shared market access, and discuss cooperation in a number of areas of shared interest.
On the Indian side, the meeting would be co-chaired by Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), External Affairs Minister (EAM), and Union Minister of State for Commerce Piyush Goyal. Executive Vice Presidents Dombrovskis and Vestager co-chair the EU side.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, made the announcement about the creation of the TTC in New Delhi in April 2022. establishing a high-level coordination platform is intended to address strategic issues at the intersection of trade, reliable technology, and security.
Tomorrow, Goyal will meet with EVP Dombrovskis in a one-on-one setting, and then there will be stakeholder consultations for Working Group 3 in front of business executives from the EU and India.
The minister will give the keynote presentation at a business event in the afternoon that is hosted by the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB) and attend the event. The economic impact of Belgian companies in India as well as future investment plans will be discussed at this meeting. The Prime Minister of Belgium and the President of the European Commission would also be visited by the three Indian ministers.
Goyal would go to a stakeholder event on Tuesday for Workgroups 1 and 2. While Group 2 focuses on clean and green energy technology, Group 1 focuses on digital governance and connectivity. About eight business executives from each side will attend this event and offer their opinions and comments. At this occasion, Goyal will give a Special Address.
Prior to the second ministerial meeting in the following year, the first ministerial meeting will lay out a plan for cooperation among the three working groups and give guidance for achieving desired results.
The ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) discussions, addressing concerns of reciprocal market access, WTO reforms, and collaboration were all topics of discussion during the high-level meetings with senior leaders of the European Union and Belgium. many topics of shared interest would be discussed.
