The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) will be signed on December 16, 2026, two diplomatic sources have separately confirmed to The Hindu.
This will be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming back-to-back trips in December to Canada, the U.S., and Belgium, where three separate FTAs are currently either being negotiated or in the process of approval.
Further, as the EU FTA has received “majority approval” in Europe, it will not require separate ratification by each EU country once the European Council gives its go-ahead.
The next step, after the December signing, will be passage in the European Parliament, which will take another one to two months, paving the way for a roll-out in “early 2027”.
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Smooth sailing for EU deal
“The most recent development was the European Commission finalising the text of the deal and sending it to the European Council,” a diplomatic source told The Hindu. “The signing is scheduled for December 16, after which it will go to the European Parliament, which will add just about 1-2 months to the process.”
A second source confirmed the date, adding that it would take place in Brussels in the presence of Mr. Modi.
Negotiations on the India-EU FTA, dubbed the “mother of all deals” by leaders on both sides, restarted in June 2022 after a long hiatus and were concluded in January 2026.
“The deal has majority support in Europe, and so it will not need to be individually ratified in each EU country,” the first source added. A reason for this support is that the two sides agreed to leave out contentious issues from the deal and not make “the best the enemy of the good”.
Also Read | Expect EU to sign FTA and India-Canada negotiations to be completed by year-end, govt says
Canada calling
Mr. Modi is expected to travel to Canada first, probably around December 12, prior to the G-20 Summit in Miami, to be hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump. Confirming the visit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said trade negotiations had made “good progress”, and that India is an “exceptionally important relationship on many levels” including people to people, security trade, and economic ties.
“Our commitment to each other, PM Modi and myself last year at the G20 (in Canada) was to look to conclude negotiations by G20 of this year (in the U.S.). That’s the middle of December, 14-15 December,” Mr. Carney told journalists at a briefing in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
In an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, also confirmed the visit, adding that he expected the India-Canada FTA to be “completed by November” and Mr. Modi would be in Canada in December to sign the deal.
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal has separately confirmed that this is largely the timeline India was operating under as well.
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On to the U.S.
Mr. Modi is then expected to attend the G20 meeting in Miami, where the India-U.S. Interim Agreement on trade and a larger Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) will also be on the agenda. Both agreements have already missed several deadlines.
Jointly announced in February 2025 by Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump, the BTA was supposed to have been completed by “Fall 2025”, but was then scuppered due to the 50% reciprocal and penal tariffs the U.S. imposed on imports from India in July-August 2025.
In February 2026, the two countries issued a joint statement in which they committed to an Interim Agreement on trade that officials on both sides said would be completed by March-April 2026. They also committed to continue working on a BTA.
Neither deal has so far come to pass, and now faces further strain due to the new law the U.S. has enacted that could see tariffs of up to 100% being levied on India on the basis of its import of Russian crude oil and natural gas.
Published – September 24, 2026 01:00 am IST
