India Plans Trade Deals With GCC and Israel After Middle East Stabilizes

According to Jin10, India plans to sign free trade agreements with the Gulf Cooperation Council and Israel once the Middle East situation improves, in an effort to diversify export markets. India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the agreements with Israel and the GCC, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, will be finalized after the situation stabilizes. In February, India and Israel agreed to complete trade talks as soon as possible during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jerusalem. The Modi government is also seeking to speed up free trade talks with other major markets, after India signed a trade agreement with Britain last year that took effect in July and reached agreements with the European Union, Oman, and New Zealand. India has also been in long-running talks with the United States.