MC EXCLUSIVE India a key strategic partner like China, keen on FTA soon: Bahrain minister

Bahrain’s minister of sustainable development Noor Bint Ali Al Khulaif

Bahrain would love to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with India, Bahrain’s Minister of Sustainable Development Noor bint Ali Al Khulaif told Moneycontrol. She described New Delhi as one of the Gulf nation's key strategic partners, comparing its importance to that of China, among others.

"We would love to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with India. There are ongoing discussions on that front," the Minister said, on the sidelines of the Gateway Gulf 2025 event. According to senior government officials in Bahrain, the two sides can conclude an FTA, or a bilateral treaty in next two years.

Noor is also the Chief Executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB). “There are discussions happening at the moment about how to facilitate more exchange of trade and investments between Bahrain and India,” she said.

India-Bahrain begin free trade talks

On November 3rd, India and Bahrain announced the start of negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries, and decided to explore a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).

In a statement issued by the India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the India government said that India is among the top five trading partners of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and there is a potential for further growth and diversification of trade in areas such as electronics, petroleum products, processed foods, base metals and gems and jewellery.

The bilateral trade between India and Bahrain in 2024-25 stood at $1.64 billion. “The two-way investments between both countries are also continuing to grow. In this regard, they (India and Bahrain) emphasized the fostering of closer cooperation between investment authorities and private sector to further diversify and expand bilateral trade and investment ties," the MEA statement said.

Within the GCC, India has signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). And talks on for a CEPA with Oman are in final stages while for a similar agreement with Qatar talks are in progress.

‘India our strategic market’

"We think India is one of our strategic markets, just like China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea," Minister Al Khulaif told Moneycontrol. She said that government officials from Bahrain continue to visit India on an annual basis. "Technology, Education, Tourism are our focus areas. We also aim to bring in tourists from India to our country," she said.

The Minister said that Bahrain is the first country to attract investment from Amazon Web Services. "Bahrain is very cost competitive. We’re flexible with regulations."

"When they (Amazon) asked for data protection law, we brought it. Any data hosted at AWS is treated like an embassy. It gives comfort to the company that the data hosted by them won’t be accessed by Bahrain’s government,” she said.

The Minister said that financial services, manufacturing, logistics, tourism and technology are the five priority sectors for the Bahrain’s government. "We seriously take the private sector’s feedback on ease of doing business. 86% of our GDP is contributed by non-oil sectors."