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Global Affairs and International Relations › Major powers
हिन्दी — Read in HindiEurope (European Union, United Kingdom, France, Germany)
India and Europe: the European Union and its major powers.
India and France
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France is India's oldest strategic partner (1998), and in February 2026 the relationship was raised to a Special Global Strategic Partnership.
- France supplies key defence platforms: Rafale fighters, 26 Rafale Marine jets for the Navy, and the Scorpene (Kalvari class) submarines built in India.
- The Horizon 2047 roadmap, adopted in 2023, sets the direction of the partnership up to the centenary of Indian independence.
- 2026 is the India and France Year of Innovation, and civil nuclear cooperation now extends to small and advanced modular reactors.
What changed
14 Jun 2026Newnewly added
- At their first summit since the upgrade, in Nice, the two leaders adopted an Innovation Roadmap 2030 and set up a mechanism to double bilateral trade within five years.
- They launched an Economic Security Dialogue and a joint working group on artificial intelligence.
- They opened Bharat Innovates, a showcase of Indian deep technology startups, and ISRO signed a letter of intent on human spaceflight with France's space agency, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES).
The Hindu, 14 Jun 2026: Modi, Macron inaugurate Innovation Conference in Nice (opens in a new tab) · The Tribune, 14 Jun 2026: PM Modi, French President Macron jointly inaugurate Bharat Innovates in Nice (opens in a new tab) · Embassy of India, Paris, 14 Jun 2026: India and France bilateral brief (opens in a new tab)
India and EU Trade and Technology Council
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The India and European Union (EU) Trade and Technology Council is a ministerial forum on trade, technology and security.
What changed
15 Jul 2026Briefnewly addedThe External Affairs Minister and the Commerce Minister attended the third meeting of the Council in Brussels on 14 and 15 July. The External Affairs Minister also discussed West Asia, maritime security and freedom of navigation with the European Council President and the EU's High Representative. The strategic track rests on the Security and Defence Partnership signed in January 2026. Embassy of India, Muscat, 15 Jul 2026: Visit of the External Affairs Minister to Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, New York and Brussels, 5 to 15 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)
See also: India's trade agreements
The Visegrad Group and India
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The Visegrad Group (V4) is a grouping of four Central European countries: Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
What changed
21 Sep 2026Briefnewly addedThe External Affairs Minister attended the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the V4 with India, in New York under Slovakia's V4 presidency. It covered trade, technology, supply chains, defence and mobility, and gives India a regional channel into Central Europe beside the European Union. News On AIR, 21 Sep 2026: EAM S Jaishankar attends first V4 plus India Foreign Ministers meeting in New York (opens in a new tab)
Also filed elsewhere
- India's trade agreements · on Trade policy, tariffs and trade agreements
In 2019 India stayed out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, fearing a flood of imports.