India and EU committed to having Free Trade Agreement by end of this year, says Finnish envoy

Indian Express

21 hours ago

Leaders on the Indian side and European side are now committed to the goal of having a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of this year and there is a good chance that this goal can be achieved, said Finland's Ambassador to India Kimmo Lähdevirta here on Monday.
The Finnish Ambassador made these remarks while inaugurating the Finnish embassy's Honorary Consulate in Gujarat at Arvind Limited's Corporate Office in Ahmedabad city's Naroda.
Vice president of Arvind Limited, Kulin Lalbhai, who has been appointed as the Honorary Consul of Finland was also present on the occasion.
After inaugurating the Honorary Consulate, the Finnish ambassador interacted with media persons.
When asked about the recent visit of a delegation of the European Union (EU), prospects of FTA between India and EU and how soon could it be concluded, Lähdevirta said, 'It really was historic. The whole collegium of the EU Commission visited India. It was a historic visit. I think it also created good momentum for the negotiations to go ahead. I think both leaders — on the European and Indian side are now committed to the goal of having an agreement by the end of this year. Of course, it still requires a lot of work. But I do believe that there is a good chance that this goal can be achieved…at the moment, I would say that the momentum and prospects are very good.'
In a brief speech after inaugurating the Honorary Consulate, Lähdevirta said, 'Last year Finland and India celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations, and Finns have been present in India for at least as long as that even longer actually. Many Finnish companies have established their presence here in India, collaborating, manufacturing and innovating for decades with Indian partners, and they are here to stay.'
'The decision to open our Honorary Consulate here is a reflection of the deepening Finnish–Indian partnership, and growing business interest. Finnish companies are contributing to the state's growth and development goals through world-class technologies, sustainable solutions, and investments,' he added.
'In Gujarat, our cooperation has traditionally focused on energy, but today, Finnish companies are engaged across multiple sectors: clean energy, circular economy, skilling, smart infrastructure, and sustainable design. And Gujarat – with its world-class infrastructure, business-friendly environment, and innovation-oriented institutions – offers an ideal environment for these collaborations to flourish,' he further added.
According to the Finnish ambassador, there are over 100 companies operating in India and about 10 of them are active in Gujarat.
He also said that the overall annual trade between India and Finland is around three billion Euros which includes trade in goods and services.
He added that Finland's export to India is more on the goods side and India's export to Finland is more on the services side.
He invited the people of Gujarat to 'visit, explore and invest in Finland'.
In the context, he also said that Finland is going to organise a roadshow in Helsinki next autumn to let people know about current India as well.
He said that Finland wants to attract Indian students and healthcare personnel.
Speaking on the occasion, Kulin Lalbhai said, 'With this sort of opportunity and platform… of being a part of a dialogue with a country as exciting as Finland, it personally also projects an opportunity for me to get new exposure and try and contribute to this great relationship. And as Honorary Consul, there will be multiple things that I hope to work on. One of course is to bring Finnish companies and companies here together. It's a complementary economy, skill sets that we can bring together. We have started meeting many companies one on one and we hope to deepen these relationships and bring a lot of positives to both sides of the equation.'
In reply to a question, Lalbhai said that there are more than 20,000 Indians who are living in Finland and over 20 Indian companies have established operations there.