India to sign FTA with Eurasian Economic Union
India, on Thursday, confirmed that it will sign free trade pact with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) at the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2015). And, an official confirmation in this regard was given by Amit Telang, first secretary of India's embassy in Russia, in his address to a Russian news agency. Apart from India, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt and Israel are also likely to enter into free trade agreements with the EAEU. EAEU is an international organization aimed at promotion of regional economic integration and the member states of the Union, which started operating from January 1, 2015, include Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia. The EAEU intends to strengthen economic integration between its member countries through integration of their economic policies and guaranteeing free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce between the member states. Here it is noteworthy to mention that in 2015, earlier in many cases, India expressed its willingness to sign free trade agreements with countries like Russia, Peru, Srilanka, Iran, among others. The FTA between the EU and India, for which the initial talks were laid in 2007, was lastly discussed in 2013, where both the sides failed to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues including data security status for the IT sector in May 2013. However, the Indian government gave impetus to the long-pending agreement in 2015 and the EU envoy J Cravinho had also confirmed earlier that the issues pertaining to bilateral investment and FTA between the EU and India would be resolved and finalized in 2015.
June 19, 2015 | 8:16 pm IST.
to success.