Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal held discussions on bilateral trade and investment relations with the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion of the Sultanate of Oman, Qais Bin Mohammed Al Yousef.

Both the ministers discussed the need for a focused approach on enhancing investments in both countries. It was decided that an Oman Desk would be created in Invest India for this purpose. Similarly, Invest Oman would also launch an India Desk, the Commerce ministry said in a statement on Monday.

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The meeting was held on the sidelines of the State Visit of the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tarik to India.

The leaders expressed satisfaction at the pace of ongoing negotiations for signing an India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

They underlined that holding two rounds of negotiations in quick succession in less than a month’s time is a testimony that both countries are committed to deepening the economic relations further.

Substantively, negotiations on the text of the India – Oman CEPA have been largely completed. The leaders exhorted their respective negotiators to conclude discussions on the remaining issues paving way for early conclusion of India-Oman CEPA negotiations and signing of the Agreement.

India and Oman share a longstanding history of friendship and cooperation, built on the foundation of mutual trust and respect, and strong people-to-people ties going back centuries.

The two countries are strategic partners and the bilateral trade and investment relationship between them has flourished since diplomatic relations were established in 1955 which was upgraded to strategic partnership in 2008.

As per the data shared by the Commerce Ministry, the bilateral trade between both the countries grew by 82.64 per cent in 2021-2022 to reach USD 9.99 billion.

In 2022-2023, it further increased to USD 12.39 billion, more than doubling in the previous two years, in comparison to USD 5.4 billion in 2020-2021.