India and Qatar will soon launch negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA), with the goal of reaching a deal by the middle or third quarter of next year, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said in Doha on Monday.

“Very soon we should be in a position to launch negotiations and hopefully conclude them in a very short time frame. I would think that sometime by the middle of next year or third quarter of next year we will be able to finalise an FTA if not earlier,” the minister told reporters here.

Why is Goyal in Doha?

Goyal is in Doha for a meeting of the India-Qatar Ministerial Joint Commission on Economic and Commercial Cooperation, which he co-chaired with Qatar’s minister of commerce and industry, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Thani.

He said the terms of

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