By Sahil Pandey

New Delhi [India], October 9 (ANI): Estonia is a strong supporter of the proposed India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and sees significant opportunities to expand digital services, technology partnerships and business collaboration with India, Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa Pakosta has said on Friday.

In an interview with ANI on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress, Pakosta said the agreement could create new opportunities for both countries, particularly because digital services can be scaled across international markets.

"Estonia is a very strong supporter of the free trade agreement between India and the European Union, and we see it as extremely important, especially for the digital, because digital services are scalable," she said.

Pakosta said Estonia is interested in expanding its successful products and services in India while encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to establish businesses within the European Union through Estonia's e-residency programme.

"So we are interested from the Estonian side to scale our very successful products and services here, and we are very much interested in Indian talent, Indian companies to start their business within the European Union from Estonia," she said.

The e-residency programme allows entrepreneurs to establish and operate companies in the European Union digitally without physically moving to Estonia.

Explaining the initiative, Pakosta said, "The e-residency programme allows you to not physically but only digitally start and run a company within the European Union."

She praised India's technological capabilities and research and development ecosystem, expressing Estonia's interest in working with Indian companies to develop and expand innovative solutions.

"Really, your country here in India, you have so much talent, and we very much appreciate the developments, but also the research that you are doing. This is excellent. So we would like to cooperate and co-create with this," she said.

Pakosta said India and Estonia also had considerable scope for cooperation in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital public services.

On responsible AI, she stressed the importance of international regulations that can build public trust, provide clear safeguards and enable companies to innovate.

"In Estonia we say that you need some kind of regulation to build trust. So digital society is always about trust. People trust their digital data to the government, and in Estonia it's people that control the government, not vice versa. So it means actually that you have to build this trust, and for trust you need some kind of regulation," she said.

She added that predictable regulatory frameworks could make it easier for companies to develop products that can be expanded across markets.

"Estonia is very much interested in Indian talent and Indian companies to start their business within the European Union from Estonia," she said.

Pakosta also identified Estonia's X-Road digital architecture as an area of potential knowledge-sharing, particularly as India continues to develop its digital public infrastructure.

She said stronger India-EU economic ties could further facilitate collaboration in digital technologies and services. (ANI)