Eam Jaishankar On India’s Free Trade Strategy

India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar has said that Trade Agreements have always occupied a salient position when it comes to global economic engagement. Speaking at the Business Today, Best CEOs awards event on Saturday, Jaishankar said this is even more so now, a reality that India must recognize. Currently, we are engaged in three particularly important negotiations – the FTAs with European Union and United Kingdom and the BTA with the United States. Just this week, we launched negotiations with New Zealand as well. A few others are already in the pipeline. In the current uncertain and volatile world, it is essential that we appreciate the value of such endeavours. We have to carefully assess their costs and benefits, as well as weigh the price of action versus inaction. There could also be collateral benefits of such understandings, especially in sensitive technologies. India will take obviously an India First approach in this regard, with Viksit Bharat as the goal. Obviously, thinking will also be guided by the prospect of tapping unrealized potential in these relationships. Most of our earlier FTAs are with Asian economies, many of a competitive character. Introducing an overall balance by engaging the Gulf and Western economies has not just an economic logic, but a strategic one as well.