In his opening address at the Paris AI Action Summit in February 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong case for open technologies, arguing, “We must develop open-source systems that enhance trust and transparency.” While this statement didn’t garner much attention, it has immense strategic importance for India and the EU, and can serve as the foundation for the India-EU technology partnership.
Both India and the EU realise the significance of technology cooperation to their foreign policies. For this reason, the EU-India Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was created in April 2022 to respond to “challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security.” This initiative recognised that technological leadership increasingly determines geopolitical influence and therefore both sides need a structured mechanism to coordinate their approaches in an era of intensifying cooperation, competition and conflict over technology.