A two-day intensive discussion between European Union's Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. It provided strategic guidance to the teams negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The agreement could be concluded "at the earliest", sources here said. The visit of Sefcovic took place against the backdrop of the technical discussions held from 3-9 December 2025 in New Delhi across key chapters of India-EU FTA covering Market Access for Goods, Rules of Origin, Services, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade and Sustainable Development.

The visit was preceded by high-level discussions between Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and Director-General Trade, European Commission Sabine Weyand.

Before he met Goyal, Sefcovic also held discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He also met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "We had a constructive, results-oriented discussion on key areas of shared interest and opportunity between India and the EU". EU trade commissioner posted on 'X' after his meeting with the finance minister.

"Both sides took note of the steady progress achieved across various negotiating tracks and agreed on the need to sustain the current momentum through continued exchanges", a commerce ministry statement said. The ministerial level discussions reaffirmed the strong political resolve on either side to address pending issues through constructive engagement and to work towards a comprehensive, mutually advantageous outcome.

Both sides are aiming to conclude the negotiations in 2025 itself. The year end deadline to wrap up the negotiations was set in February when the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited India with the full college of commissioners.

Officials say that because of momentum in talks, the deal would be agreed to positively at the most by the first quarter of 2026. In January India and EU will be holding their summit.