The ambitious India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), negotiations for which were concluded, is likely to come into force within the 2026 calendar year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.Speaking at a joint press conference with top officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Commerce Ministry, Goyal said the agreement would now be taken up for legal scrubbing on a fast-track basis, followed by simultaneous translation into all 24 official languages of the European Union.”Every agreement stands on its own legs, and this is a wonderful agreement. It will be taken up for legal scrubbing on a fast-track basis, as discussed today, and translated into 24 languages simultaneously. We do hope that we should be able to celebrate the entry into force of this agreement within calendar 2026 itself,” Goyal said.The minister’s remarks comes just hours after India and the EU formally announced the conclusion of negotiations for the long-pending FTA, described by officials as one of the most comprehensive trade agreements India has ever negotiated.Responding to a query on whether the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) featured in discussions during the India-EU engagement, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said connectivity was a key thread in the bilateral agenda and that IMEC was discussed in detail.“Connectivity is a very important thread in the agenda between India and the EU, and indeed it was on the agenda today. There was a discussion about it, and there was consensus that the IMEC initiative should be taken forward,” Misri said.He added that India and the EU had agreed to move beyond working-level engagements and convene higher-level meetings, eventually leading to a summit of IMEC member countries. “Between Europe and India, we are united on this, and we will take this forward with the other collaborators within IMEC,” he said.On the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said India had secured important understandings under the FTA framework to address concerns of domestic industry.”CBAM is a horizontal regulation applicable to all partner countries globally. Under the FTA, we have agreed on certain provisions,” Agrawal said. These include setting up a technical dialogue to chart pathways for Indian industries to continue accessing the EU market despite CBAM requirements, and cooperation to ensure that CBAM verifiers in India are accredited by EU agencies.He said both sides would also work together to align technical processes for carbon measurement and ensure that India’s future carbon trading system is recognised under the EU’s CBAM framework. “To our larger comfort, the EU has also committed that any flexibility extended under CBAM to any partner country will automatically flow to India as well,” he said, describing it as a forward Most Favoured Nation (MFN) commitment.Responding to a question on whether recent tariff actions by the United States had acted as a unifying factor for India and the EU in concluding the deal, Goyal dismissed the suggestion. “I don’t think we even discussed this at any point of time,” the Commerce Minister said.