NEW DELHI: The Gulf Cooperation Council looks forward to starting free trade negotiations with India this year, its secretary general said, as he outlined the bloc’s cooperation efforts at the Kochi Dialogue diplomacy conclave this week.
Themed “India’s Look West Policy in Action: People, Prosperity and Progress,” the forum was hosted on Jan. 16-17 by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Centre for Public Policy Research think tank in Kochi, southern Kerala state.
The event brought together government officials and business leaders from India, as well as delegates from the GCC countries — Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Ƶ and the UAE — along with diplomats from Australia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, who was one of the forum’s key speakers, highlighted the significance of India relations for the Gulf bloc and plans to move cooperation forward, including by engaging in long-awaited free trade agreement talks.
“Expanding free trade negotiations will pave the way for economic integration, removing trade barriers, expanding cooperation in digital economies, and transforming industries. I also hope that we hold our first round of FTA negotiation this year, 2025,” Al-Budaiwi told Kochi Dialogue participants.
Economic cooperation plays a crucial role in the GCC’s relations with India, with the value of annual trade exchanges reaching more than $160 billion last year.
Exports from GCC countries to India amount to about $90 billion, representing 71 percent of the bloc’s total exports.
“This underscores the significant importance of this cooperation,” the GCC secretary-general said.
“Trade between the two sides includes a diverse area of industrial and agricultural products, contributing to economic integration and creating opportunities for growth and market expansion.”
GCC investment in India exceeded $5.7 billion across various projects, which according to Al-Budaiwi reflected “promising opportunity” on both sides.
“These investments have enabled us to achieve significant economic benefits, including job creation and enhanced economic growth, making India, our friendly India, key trading partner for GCC countries,” he said.
So far, India has a free trade deal with only one GCC country, the UAE, with which it signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022.
India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the whole bloc for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.
The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods, as well as concessions on visas in a region that is a second home for about nine million Indian expat workers.
