India and the EU have agreed to launch a new Trade and Technology Council (TTC), a regulatory body which would work to boost cooperation between the countries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a joint statement on Monday.
“I am pleased that today Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed to establish an EU-India Trade and Technology Council … because India is technologically a powerhouse, and in the trade sector we need to unleash an enormous amount of untapped potential,” von der Leyen said in the statement.
The council is expected to be a “strategic coordination mechanism” which will allow both partners “to tackle challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security, and thus deepen cooperation in these fields between the EU and India.” It is also expected to “provide the political steer and the necessary structure to operationalize political decisions, coordinate technical work … [and] ensure [the] implementation and follow-up” of projects deemed important for the “sustainable progress of the Indian and European economies.”