Europe’s India Pivot: Ports, Missiles, and AI

February 18, 2026 Posted by India Briefing Written by Melissa Cyrill Reading Time: 4 minutes

In the weeks following the conclusion of the India–European Union Free Trade Agreement (India–EU FTA) in January, a clear diplomatic pattern has emerged. European leaders travelled to New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit. France’s President Emmanuel Macron held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, advancing cooperation across defense, aerospace, artificial intelligence (AI), and logistics. Meanwhile, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd signed a cooperation agreement with Port of Marseille Fos to strengthen India–Europe maritime connectivity.

Viewed together, these developments signal a recalibration in how Europe views India’s economic and strategic weight.

Diplomatic momentum behind the India-EU FTA

The India–EU FTA provides the structural framework for expanded engagement across goods, services, investment, and regulatory cooperation. Yet trade liberalization alone does not explain the current tempo of high-level political participation.

Speak with our experts to evaluate tariff exposure, FTA utilization, and operational setup in India’s key industrial corridors.

Trade agreements reduce barriers; strategic partnerships build systems. The current momentum reflects an understanding across European capitals that India’s economic trajectory, regulatory evolution, and industrial scale increasingly shape global commercial outcomes. Engagement today seeks to align not only trade flows but long-term policy directions, technology standards, and industrial ecosystems.

For Brussels and member states alike, India represents one of the few large economies combining scale, democratic governance, digital transformation, and sustained growth momentum. Embedding within that growth cycle carries strategic weight.

ALSO READ: Why German CEOs Are Betting on India: The India-EU FTA Opportunity

Infrastructure diplomacy: Ports as strategic connectors

The MoU between Adani Ports and Port of Marseille Fos carries geopolitical significance. Ports serve as gateways for goods, energy, and industrial inputs. They anchor supply chains and shape trade corridors over decades.

Align Your India Strategy with Global Operations: Assess risks, opportunities, and structuring considerations

Marseille is France’s principal Mediterranean port and a strategic node linking Europe with Africa and the Middle East. Cooperation with one of India’s largest port operators enhances connectivity across major maritime routes while opening avenues for collaboration in digital port systems, green energy logistics, and trade facilitation.

Such arrangements extend beyond incremental trade gains. They embed institutional partnerships, create operational interdependence, and align commercial incentives over the long term. Infrastructure diplomacy, in this context, functions as economic statecraft.

For European exporters and logistics firms, closer port-level integration with India strengthens predictability and supply chain resilience. For India, the partnership supports its ambition to position itself as a logistics and manufacturing hub serving multiple regions.

Defense cooperation: Industrial policy with a strategic lens

India–France discussions during President Macron’s visit resulted in agreements spanning helicopter assembly, production of Hammer missile systems, AI collaboration, and advanced manufacturing.

Defense cooperation sits at the intersection of industrial policy and strategic trust. Co-production arrangements and assembly lines deepen supply chain integration, expand skills ecosystems, and foster technology sharing.

For Europe, India represents:

A large and expanding defense market
A manufacturing base aligned with diversification strategies
A partner capable of scaling advanced industrial production

For India, these partnerships enhance technological capabilities while anchoring European capital within domestic production networks.

Defense collaboration increasingly functions as industrial strategy diplomacy. It reflects a broader global trend where the twin objectives of economic resilience and strategic security share institutional frameworks.

ALSO READ: How French Companies Leverage India as a Global Delivery Base

Technology governance: AI as geopolitical terrain

Europe has established itself as a regulatory leader in technology, from data protection under GDPR to AI and digital market regulation. India’s rise as a major digital economy and technology talent hub creates strong incentives for regulatory interoperability. Cooperation under the Joint India–EU Comprehensive Strategic Agenda Towards 2030, endorsed in January 2026, explicitly includes digital infrastructure and secure next-generation networks, including 6G research and standards development, where joint influence over testing protocols and certification systems can shape market conditions in both jurisdictions.

The AI Impact Summit in Delhi, running from February 16-20, has eight EU leaders in attendance – the presidents and prime ministers of Spain, Estonia, Slovakia, Croatia, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, and France – alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior EU tech officials, and global tech executives. It illustrates how AI summits, a format that gained global prominence with the 2023 AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK government at Bletchley Park, have become high-level diplomatic platforms rather than purely technical conferences, bringing together heads of government, regulators, and corporate leaders to shape global governance frameworks.

For EU technology actors, the timing is significant. Many of the regulatory parameters that will define digital markets over the next three to five years – liability standards, certification requirements, interoperability norms – are still being formulated. Participation in normative discussions such as at the India AI Impact Summit provides competitive positioning rather than reactive compliance.

Commercial opportunities beckon cross-border investors to design products and services aligned with both EU and Indian regulatory environments, creating dual-market scalability and reducing adaptation costs.

A broader European repositioning

Get practical guidance on entity setup, tax structuring, and localization/compliance for France↔India operations.

Europe’s outreach to India unfolds amid supply chain diversification efforts, industrial competitiveness debates within the European Union, and geopolitical shifts across Eurasia. Policymakers are relooking at economic partnerships to enhance resilience while sustaining growth.

India’s expanding infrastructure base, digital public platforms, and manufacturing incentives present an alternative anchor within Asia’s production landscape. The combination of scale and policy continuity enhances India’s attractiveness for long-term capital deployment.

At the member-state level, governments appear intent on securing footholds in sectors where India’s growth prospects intersect with European capabilities: logistics, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defense, and digital technologies.

The diplomatic tempo suggests coordination between political outreach and commercial positioning. High-level visits create confidence signals for private capital, reinforcing the perception that bilateral engagement rests on durable foundations.

What this means for business leaders

For European corporates:

India is emerging as a base for co-production and innovation partnerships.
Port connectivity and defense supply chain integration offer long-term industrial alignment.
Regulatory engagement in AI and digital governance provides early positioning advantages.

For Indian firms:

European capital and technology partnerships expand export competitiveness.
Integrated infrastructure and industrial ties strengthen India’s role within global value chains.

For global investors:

The convergence of trade frameworks, infrastructure linkages, and defense cooperation indicates structural alignment rather than temporary diplomatic enthusiasm.

A new phase in India-Europe relations

Planning to expand into India or the EU under the new FTA? Speak with our advisors

India and Europe are entering a phase where trade, technology, infrastructure, and security policy increasingly intersect. The FTA may have laid the groundwork, but the rapid sequence of leadership visits and industrial agreements illustrates how that framework is being activated across sectors.

Amid the chaos of shifting geopolitical priorities, India is assuming a very visible role in Europe’s external economic strategy. Both sides recognize the long-term dividends of alignment. The recent flurry of diplomatic and commercial activity indicates that European governments are determined to ensure their companies and institutions are embedded within India’s long-term growth trajectory.