India and Israel concluded the first round of negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Thursday and established a structured framework for discussions on identified areas to enhance trade and economic cooperation. From agriculture to emerging tech to artificial intelligence, both the countries are exploring sectors for bilateral growth. Both sides agreed to explore linking UPI with Israel’s fast payment system to enhance interoperability and strengthen economic ties.
The Commerce Ministry in a media release said that both the countries engaged in discussions covering a wide range of areas, including trade in goods and services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, customs procedures, intellectual property rights, digital trade, and other key chapters. The two also discussed ways to address various non-tariff barriers.
The negotiations concluded at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to Jerusalem while the Israeli delegations were in India for trade negotiations with the Ministry of Commerce in India.
“We discussed giving new direction and greater momentum to our cooperation. This includes economic and trade linkages. We have decided to establish a critical and emerging technologies partnership. This will accelerate cooperation in many futuristic areas. Agriculture is a key area where India and Israel are working closely,” stated Narendra Modi in his social media post.
During his visit to Jerusalem, the Indian Prime Minister has urged Israeli companies to invest in India in sectors like AI, Quantum computing, healthcare, cyber security, water resources, agriculture and more. According to the Commerce Ministry, India and Israel revived FTA talks with signing of the terms of references (TOR) in November after a stalled negotiation process dating back to 2010. Bilateral merchandise trade stood at $3.6 billion, with gems and jewellery contributing significantly to India’s export to the West Asian nation.
Both the countries have shown special interests in bilateral growth in the finance sector, with special focus on digital payment. India–Israel Financial Dialogue has been launched to boost closer financial cooperation. An MoU has been signed between NPCI International (NIPL) and MASAV, Israel to enable cross-border remittances between India and Israel via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
A total of 17 MoUs have been signed between the countries including protocol on labour mobility in commerce and services sector and manufacturing sector as well as also for India-Israel innovation centre for agriculture.