By Sahil Pandey 

Berlin (Germany), October 24 (ANI): Indian Ambassador to Germany Ajit Gupte said that the proposed India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is expected to provide further momentum to India-Germany relations, highlighting the growing bilateral partnership across trade, investment, defence and people-to-people ties.

In an interview to ANI, Gupte said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's visit to Germany had come at an important juncture and would contribute significantly to strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Responding to a question on how the India-EU FTA would benefit both countries and contribute to bilateral relations, Gupte underlined Germany's position as India's largest trade and investment partner within the European Union.

"There has been a comprehensive development of relations between India and Germany in the last few years. Germany is not only India's largest trade and investment partner within the EU, but we have also developed our defence partnership, and the Indian diaspora here is growing by leaps and bounds," Gupte said.

The Ambassador also highlighted the expansion of the Indian diaspora in Germany, noting that its numbers had increased by around 60,000 annually over the past two years.

"They have been growing by about 60,000 per year for the last two years, and they have now crossed 332,000," he said.

Emphasising the significance of Goyal's visit in the context of the evolving India-Germany relationship, Gupte said the engagement would help further strengthen the strategic partnership.

"The Minister's visit has come at a very important juncture, and it will contribute significantly to the strengthening of the strategic partnership," the Indian Ambassador told ANI.

Gupte also said that India has emerged as a "very reliable and trustworthy partner" for Germany and Europe amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

He said the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Europe's energy crisis and friction in the transatlantic partnership had created uncertainty, prompting Germany and other European countries to look towards India as a dependable partner.

"At such a juncture, Germany and Europe are looking at India as a very reliable and trustworthy partner. Therefore, the visit of the Commerce Minister is very timely," Gupte told ANI.

His remarks come as, according to the European Parliament, a delegation from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, led by Chair David McAllister, will travel to New Delhi from October 26 to 28, 2026. The visit will mark the AFET Committee's "first official visit to India under the European Parliament's current mandate."

During the visit, members of the committee will meet representatives of the Indian government, Parliament, the business community, think tanks and non-governmental organisations to discuss the EU-India Strategic Agenda and "the main geopolitical challenges facing both partners."

The discussions will focus on "strengthening the EU-India strategic partnership and addressing shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific and beyond," according to the European Parliament.

The upcoming visit comes as Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal arrived in Germany on October 22 with a large delegation comprising nearly 100 representatives from various sectors of Indian industry. 

During the visit on October 22, addressing an India-Germany business roundtable here, Goyal said the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), finalised earlier this year, would move towards signing quickly, expressing confidence that it could be signed before the end of the calendar year, subject to the requisite procedures.

"You rightly mentioned Ms. von der Leyen's comment about India and EU FTA being the mother of all deals. It took twenty years, but I can assure you the agreement really got finalised in the last thirteen months," Goyal said.

He said the conclusion of negotiations had been announced on January 27 and credited the commitment of India and the 27-nation European Union to completing the negotiations. (ANI)