Piyush Goyal, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, has begun his three-day visit to France—which is a part of his five-day official tour to France and Italy—in a bid to deepen strategic and economic ties with key European partners, the ministry said in a release on Sunday.

In France, Goyal is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with French Ministers, including Eric Lombard, the Minister of Economy, and Laurent Saint-Martin, the French Trade Minister. The discussions will focus on strengthening the Indo-French economic partnership and exploring new avenues for enhancing trade and investment cooperation.

As part of the visit, the top leadership of major French companies—such as Vicat, Total Energies, L’Oréal, Renault, Valeo, EDF and ATR— will feature the India-France Business Round Table and the India-France CEO Forum, which foster dialogue between leading industry stakeholders from both countries.

During his stay in France, Goyal will also participate in the informal gathering of WTO Ministers on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. At this forum, he will engage with global counterparts on key multilateral trade issues, and articulate the perspectives and priorities of India. He is also scheduled to hold bilateral engagements with trade ministers of the UK, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Nigeria and Brazil.

The ministry also said that meetings are planned with key EU officials, including Maroš Šefčovič, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency, and Christophe Hansen, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. 

Following his engagements in France, Goyal will proceed to Italy, the ministry said.

Goyal’s visit comes at a time when India is pushing to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU by July this year. Last month, senior ministry officials said India is attempting to strike an early harvest trade deal with the EU if talks for a comprehensive FTA get prolonged due to pending issues. 

The early agreement will be similar to the initial tranche of the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) that is being negotiated at the moment. The officials said India is seeing such bilateral agreements or FTAs as the best bet to minimise the negative impact of unexpected geopolitical crises and tariff or non-tariff barriers imposed by countries, including U.S. President Donald Trump's ‘reciprocal tariff’ plan.