Launching Ireland’s six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union in New Delhi, Irish Ambassador Kevin Kelly described India as one of the EU’s most important strategic partners. He said Ireland would work to advance the EU-India Free Trade Agreement.
New Delhi: Ireland formally launched its six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the Indian capital on Wednesday, with Ambassador Kevin Kelly telling a gathering at the Press Club of India that the EU-India relationship has become “far more complex” and consequential than when Dublin last held the rotating post in 2013.
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Speaking under the Irish Presidency’s guiding motto – Ní neart go cur le chéile, “There is no strength without unity”. Kelly framed the six-month term against a backdrop of war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East, intensifying geopolitical rivalry and strain on multilateral institutions. Ireland’s programme rests on three pillars: competitiveness, values and security, alongside a strong push on EU enlargement, with Montenegro singled out as the most advanced candidate. India Named a Top-Tier Strategic Partner
‘India a strategic partner’
Kelly said the European Union “increasingly sees India as one of its most important strategic partners,” and that this priority is embedded directly in Ireland’s Presidency programme alongside its Indo-Pacific focus.
Dublin intends to use its Council term to push forward an ambitious EU-India Free Trade Agreement, while stressing that the relationship “extends far beyond trade” into technology, research, climate action, connectivity, maritime security, resilient supply chains and digital cooperation.
Kelly pointed to scale as a driver of the partnership’s importance: India and the EU together represent nearly two billion people, and both are described as major democracies and economic powers with a growing stake in shared global challenges.
A Relationship That Has “Come a Long Way”
Reflecting on nearly three years as Ireland’s envoy in India, Kelly said he has been struck by how closely Indian audiences follow developments in Europe, with conversations that once centred narrowly on trade now spanning technology, security, geopolitics and the future of the international order.
He described a “sophisticated understanding,” among ministers, business leaders, academics and journalists alike, that developments in Europe and India are increasingly consequential for each other.
He framed India and the EU as facing a shared strategic question: how to preserve openness, prosperity and international cooperation amid rising global uncertainty, arguing that the answer lies in “stronger partnerships,” not retreat or isolation.