India Likely to Sign 3 New Bilateral Investment Treaties by December, Says Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman
- IBEF
- October 6, 2026
India and the US may have reached a "plateau" in their trade negotiations, where further concessions from either side could become increasingly difficult, Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman said at a discussion at the Munich Leaders Meeting. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman said both sides appear to have reached a point beyond which giving or taking might be very difficult, though room for movement could still be explored, noting that the agreement remains "very rigorously negotiated," with the biggest sticking point being the trade imbalance that Washington wants to reduce. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman said tariffs have become "weaponised" as a tool to address trade imbalances, adding that if this approach is valid for India, the same logic should apply to US negotiations with China, and that such issues need to be settled through negotiations rather than unilateral measures.
Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman said India is negotiating bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements (BIPAs) with Canada, Russia and other countries while awaiting Cabinet approval of a new template, expecting to conclude BIPAs with at least three more countries by December, including potentially Canada by December or early next year. Last week, India signed a BIPA with Saudi Arabia offering investors a shorter two-year timeline to exhaust domestic remedies before initiating international arbitration, the first such provision among recent new-generation bilateral investment treaties. She added that countries will increasingly need to seek newer trade partners and tie up bilateral partnerships as global trade dynamics shift.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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