India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will officially launch negotiations today on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), an Indian government official said on Thursday, November 24.
The official said that officials representing the GCC will be present at the official start of the fresh round of talks on the FTA.
India and GCC had already held two rounds of talks on a proposed FTA in 2006 and 2008 but the talks were called off at the request of the former.
The GCC region comprises the six Gulf region countries of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.
Sources in India said that indications are that India-GCC talks will be based on the framework of an FTA already concluded between India and the UAE, and hence the process of finalizing terms and conditions of trade between India and the GCC should be shorter.
India-GCC bi-lateral trade was $155 billion in 2021-22.
