India negotiating Free Trade Agreement with Gulf Cooperation Council and Qatar: MEA

New Delhi: India is in the process of negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and is also considering an FTA with Qatar.

This move aims to strengthen bilateral relations and deepen cooperation in various fields such as trade, energy, investment, security, and regional and international affairs.

During a special briefing on the state visit of the Amir of Qatar to India on Tuesday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary, CPV & OIA, Arun Kumar Chatterjee said that India and GCC “at this moment negotiating about having a free trade agreement,” and in addition, India is also exploring the possibility of signing a similar agreement with Qatar in the future.

“India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), we are at this moment negotiating about having a free trade agreement. As far as Qatar is concerned, both sides are exploring the possibility of signing a free-trade agreement in future and that was one of the discussions that took place in this round of talks,” said Chatterjee.

India has enjoyed centuries of good relations with countries like Iran, while smaller gas-rich nation Qatar is one of India’s closest allies in the region. India shares good relations with most of the countries in the Gulf.

The two most important reasons for the relationship are oil and gas, and trade. Qatar accounts for 41% of India’s total natural gas imports. Two additional reasons are the huge number of Indians who work in the Gulf countries, and the remittance they send back home.

As per a research paper published by the Reserve Bank of India, in the financial year 2020-21, remittances from the UAE to India were USD 15.40 billion, which is 18% of India’s total inward remittances.

Overall, these agreements have the potential to significantly boost India’s economic and strategic ties with the GCC and Qatar and could have far-reaching implications for the country’s trade, energy, and security policies.

“As far as strategic partnership agreement is concerned, it actually elevates the present state of bilateral relations to a strategic level. What we are looking at is deepening the cooperation in the fields of trade, energy, investment, security as well as in the regional and international flora...,” added Chatterjee.

According to MEA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Amir of Qatar held discussions on wide-ranging topics including FTA, technology, energy and people-to-people ties.

GCC is a union of six countries in the Gulf region — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The council is the largest trading bloc of India. A free trade agreement between India and the GCC has been in the works since 2004 when a Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed. Although negotiations stalled, they have resumed, with India seeking to increase trade with the GCC, which is currently its largest trading partner bloc, with bilateral trade valued at over USD 154 billion in FY 2021-22.

Earlier today, India and Qatar signed an agreement to formally elevate their relations to a strategic partnership and exchanged multiple memorandums of understanding (MoU) with a focus on trade, energy, investments, innovation, technology, food security, culture & people-to-people ties. (ANI)

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