German chancellor Angela Merkel met with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi last week at the Indo-German Business Summit in Hannover, Germany. Apart from bilateral business issues and more global ones, including UN Security Council reform, some EU-wide topics were discussed, too. Both parties expressed their dissatisfaction over the EU-India trade volumes. Although India is one of the world´s largest countries and is a fast growing economy, trade exchange has been declining since 2012. EU and India have had established relations on both political and expert levels for decades. Since 2007, the parties have been negotiating a bilateral free trade and investment agreement (BTIA). But talks have stalled for years and no negotiations took place since 2013. But now, political resolve from both sides could provide a new impetus. Both Ms Merkel and Mr Modi called for the talks to resume. An EU-India free trade agreement would create one of the world´s largest free trade zones, with a market of more than 1.8 billion people.

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