India and the European Union will try to seal a trade deal during this year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

A top European Union official on Friday highlighted the 20-year steady relationship between India and the EU, and said that both parties are ready to take the relationship to “next level”, amid a fundamental change in global dynamics.

India and the EU must take their strategic ties to the "next level" in an era of great power competition and geopolitical turmoils and the relationship has the potential to be one of the defining partnerships of this century,