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New Delhi: A trade deal between India and the European Union will be the "mother of all deals", Delhi's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, as both sides seek to overcome the final sticking points.
The deal comes after relations between New Delhi and Washington have soured following US President Donald Trump's punishing tariffs aimed at stopping India's purchases of Russian oil- which it says finances Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The EU and India's trade chiefs said last week they were getting closer to reaching a deal after days of talks in Brussels.
"This (India-EU trade pact) will be the mother of all deals," Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The 27-member bloc is pushing for a trade deal that will strengthen intellectual property rules and lower entry barriers for exports, including cars, spirits and wines.
New Delhi has pushed to improve skilled labour mobility and wants easier market access for products such as textiles and pharmaceuticals.
The leaders of the EU and India are expected to hold a summit at the end of January and the two sides have been pushing to wrap up negotiations for that event.
A senior Indian commerce ministry official, Rajesh Agarwal, told reporters on Thursday that the negotiating teams were "very close" to a deal and had "closed 20 out of 24 chapters".
India, the world's most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, is on track to become the world's fourth largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund projections.
Bilateral trade in goods reached 120 billion euros ($139 billion) in 2024, an increase of nearly 90 percent over the past decade, according to EU figures, with a further 60 billion euros ($69 billion) in trade in services.
A key sticking point for India is understood to be agriculture, with New Delhi seeking to protect its dairy and grain sectors.
It has also flagged the EU's carbon-tax and its impact on exports like iron, steel and aluminium.
