Ambassador of Ireland to India, Kevin Kelly, on Wednesday, 1 July declared that strengthening the European Union's strategic partnership with India would be a defining priority of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which officially commenced the same day and runs until 31 December 2025. At the heart of that ambition, Kelly said, is securing the long-awaited EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before the Presidency concludes.

Ireland Takes the Helm of the EU Council

This marks the eighth time Ireland has assumed the rotating EU Council Presidency — a responsibility that Kelly described as reflecting Ireland's enduring commitment to partnership, cooperation, and progress within Europe. For the next six months, Ireland will guide negotiations among the EU's 27 Member States, chair Council meetings, advance the Union's legislative agenda, and foster consensus on policy issues affecting more than 450 million European citizens.

The Irish Presidency is anchored around three overarching priorities — Competitiveness, Values and Security — under the motto 'Strength with Unity'. Kelly noted that Ireland assumes this role at a moment of profound geopolitical flux, marked by ongoing conflicts, rapid technological transformation, and mounting pressure on the multilateral system.

The EU-India FTA: Ireland's Headline Ambition

The prospective EU-India Free Trade Agreement has been in negotiation for years, and Kelly signalled that the hard bargaining is now effectively over. 'Our big hope is that the EU Free Trade Agreement with India will finally be signed before the end of our presidency. That's our ambition, and we're hoping it will happen. We'll be doing everything we can. Of course, it's now at a stage where all the hard work has been done, the negotiations have been completed, and the legal experts on both sides are reviewing the text to ensure it stands up to legal scrutiny. I think it would be a wonderful achievement if the Irish Presidency of the European Council would also be known as the period of time when the Free Trade Agreement with India was finally signed,' Kelly said.

The deal, if concluded, would be one of the most significant trade agreements for both blocs — linking the EU's single market with one of the world's fastest-growing major economies.

Key Sectors in Focus

Beyond the FTA, Ireland's Presidency programme identifies several sectors where EU-India cooperation is expected to deepen: trade, technology, research, connectivity, maritime security, resilient supply chains, and digital cooperation. Kelly underscored that the EU increasingly views India as one of its most important strategic partners, and that the Presidency programme explicitly highlights both the importance of the Indo-Pacific region and the priority attached to the EU-India relationship.

Why the EU-India Partnership Has Grown Strategically

'Together, India and the European Union account for almost two billion people. We are vibrant democracies, major economic powers and increasingly indispensable partners in addressing global challenges,' Kelly said. Having spent nearly three years in India, the Ambassador noted a marked deepening of European awareness among Indian interlocutors — conversations that once centred on trade now span technology, security, geopolitics, and the future of the international order.

This comes amid a broader Western effort to diversify supply chains and deepen ties with democratic partners in the Indo-Pacific, with India occupying an increasingly central position in that calculus. Notably, the EU-India FTA negotiations were relaunched in 2022 after a decade-long pause, and Ireland's Presidency now represents one of the clearest political windows for closure. Whether that window holds will depend on the pace of legal review on both sides in the months ahead.