(FE)
Weeks before the resumption of trade talks with the EU, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday met Wopke Hoekstra, deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and “discussed business and trade opportunities”. Hoekstra has been an advocate of the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA), which, he has said, would provide more opportunities for India towards the whole European continent, and that the Dutch government could play a role in facilitating that. “A deeper Indo-Dutch cross-sectoral cooperation will further strengthen & fortify the multi-faceted India-EU engagements,” Goyal tweeted after the meeting.
The meeting came a day after India and the EU on Monday decided to set up a trade and technology council to boost bilateral ties, as the bloc’s president Ursula von der Leyen met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. New Delhi and Brussels will resume serious negotiations for the FTA in June after a gap of almost nine years.
