Overview
- India and the Maldives announced on Tuesday that they have concluded the first virtual round of negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement.
- Negotiators held text-based discussions across eight technical sessions from June 29 to July 7, led by India’s Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh and the Maldives’ Yusuf Riza.
- The Commerce Ministry said both sides made substantive progress across negotiating tracks and reached broad convergence on several issues.
- Ministers Piyush Goyal and Mohamed Saeed reviewed the talks on July 8 and urged an expedited conclusion of a Bilateral Investment Treaty.
- Bilateral trade rose to $771.76 million in 2025–26, a 13.54% increase from the prior year, which officials say underpins cooperation in tourism, startups, digital payments and MSME ties.