NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday sought Bahrain’s support in advancing India’s engagement with the Gulf Cooperation Council as he received his Bahraini counterpart, Abdullatif Al-Zayani, in New Delhi.
Al-Zayani arrived in India on Sunday to co-chair with Jaishankar the fifth session of the India-Bahrain High Joint Commission, which was established in 2018 as the top institutional mechanism to strengthen bilateral relations.
“Since our last HJC meeting we have made significant progress bilaterally in defense, security, trade and commerce, health, culture and people-to-people ties. But there are new areas such as space, fintech and technology that hold considerable promise for our partnership,” Jaishankar told Al-Zayani in his opening remarks.
“We look forward to your support for further intensifying India-GCC cooperation,” Jaishankar said.
India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the GCC for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.
