New Delhi, Dec. 3 -- A 40-member European Union negotiating team will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday, marking the most intensive phase of the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) discussions, aimed initially at concluding it by the end of this year.

India-EU FTA talks were relaunched in 2022.

EU Ambassador to India Herve Delphin, speaking at India's World Annual Conclave 2025 today, said the current negotiations represent a fundamentally new phase, calling them "EU-India FTA negotiation 2.0".

"I mean, first, I would say it's not the same FTA negotiation as a decade ago. It's not a continuum. So please don't read this FTA negotiation through the lens of the past," Delphin said.

He said there is now "a growing sense of shared necessity ...