India has signed a free trade agreement with the European Union and talks with America regarding the deal are also in the final stages. Meanwhile, India is also going to sign a big trade agreement with its close country Israel soon. Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar on Saturday (January 31, 2026), while mentioning the strong relations between the two countries, confirmed that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can be signed between India and Israel soon. He also said that both the countries have signed the rules for negotiating FTA.

First easy then complex issues will be discussed: Azar

The Israeli Ambassador said that an Indian delegation is going to visit Tel Aviv next month in February. During this, talks will be held between the officials of both the countries regarding FTA. In the initial phase, efforts will be made to resolve the minor issues between the two countries as soon as possible. After this, when all the simple issues are resolved, then complex issues will be raised and they will be discussed to reach consensus from both the parties. Azar has expressed hope that an agreement on trade between the two countries can be completed this year.

What did Israeli Ambassador Azar say on IMEC?

While discussing the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), Israeli Ambassador Reuven Azar said that Israel is emphasizing on creating logistics infrastructure to ease trade and reduce the cost of goods. He said, ‘We have a task force in Israel, which is working on building the necessary infrastructure to deal with logistics, because we want to make business easier. We want to reduce the cost of transportation and transportation of goods to the minimum level. I think this will bring economic prosperity for everyone.

He said, ‘We are hopeful that with India’s partnership and with other countries, under the leadership of America, we can make trade and business easier in many countries of the world, but in the meantime we have to do whatever we can to help the private sector in bringing and carrying goods and that is what we are doing.’

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India-Israel FTA: The free-trade agreement between India and Israel is expected to be signed soon. It is being told that in this regard, a team of officials from Israel is going to come to India in January so that talks can be officially started on the proposed free trade agreement between the two countries.

Business will increase between the two

Let us tell you that India and Israel had signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Free Trade Agreement on November 20 to increase bilateral trade between them tenfold in the coming ten years. Both the countries have already signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). FTA between India and Israel will increase access to each other’s markets, which will increase capital flow and open doors for more investment and trade.

What do both countries send to each other?

Israel is India’s second largest business partner in Asia after China. However, mainly diamonds, petroleum products and chemicals are traded between the two countries. Its scope has increased in the last few years and now everything from medical devices to electronic machinery is also sent. Products exported from India to Israel include pearls and precious stones, chemicals and minerals, agricultural goods, textiles, base metals, electronic devices, plastics etc. At the same time, the goods coming from Israel to India include petroleum, defense equipments, machinery etc.

FTA between India-EAEU

In 2024-25, there was a trade of $3.62 billion between India and Israel, in which India sent goods worth $2.14 billion and imported goods worth $1.48 billion. Officials also said that India will start the second round of talks with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in February. The first round of talks on FTA took place in November.

The terms of reference of the India-EAEU FTA were signed on 20 August 2025. In this, an 18-month plan was made, the objective of which is to find new markets for small businessmen, farmers and fishermen in India. Let us tell you that EAEU includes five countries like Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Of these, Russia is India’s biggest business partner. Under the FTA between India and EAEU, both the parties want to increase the trade between them from the current $70 billion to $100 billion by 2030.

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