Negotiations between India and Qatar for a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) are expected to make headway, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to meet her Qatari counterpart, Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, on the sidelines of the two-day annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Doha on Monday and Tuesday.
Sitharaman, who began her official visit to Doha on Sunday, is leading a delegation of finance ministry officials, including Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur, on a three-day trip concluding Tuesday.
The bilateral meeting is likely to give a fillip to the treaty negotiations, although talks are not necessarily expected to conclude, said a person aware of the matter. “Bilateral talks on the sidelines of multilateral events rarely yield concrete outcomes,” the person added.
India is also in talks with Qatar for a free trade agreement (FTA), and the latter has expressed interest in concluding both pacts together. The finance ministry handles BIT negotiations, while FTA talks are led by the commerce ministry.
Sitharaman met al-Kuwari two years ago, and the two leaders had agreed to fast-track negotiations on BIT, alongside measures to facilitate cross-border payments and digital transactions.
An email sent to the Ministry of Finance did not elicit an immediate response.
Experts believe negotiations for deals with Qatar, covering both trade and investment, are likely to be smoother and faster, considering New Delhi’s previous experience negotiating with other West Asian economies.
India has FTAs with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman in West Asia, as well as a BIT with the UAE. “India already has a BIT with the UAE, which can act as a template for talks with Qatar,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative. “India may also ease the time frame for local legal remedy under its BIT with Qatar to three years — as it is in the India-UAE treaty,” Srivastava added.
India’s current BIT framework, introduced in 2016, requires investors to exhaust local legal remedies for five years before initiating international arbitration. But the model is currently under review, as the five-year time frame has been seen as a contentious clause by several economies, making it difficult for India to conclude a broad set of new investment treaties.
Sitharaman announced the review of the framework in February last year, and it is nearly complete. The draft of the updated BIT framework is now with the Union Cabinet and is expected to be approved very soon, according to a top finance ministry official.
Until June this year, India had recorded cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) of $1.78 billion from Qatar since 2000, according to the latest data available with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
Besides Qatar, India is also engaged in negotiations for BITs with the UK, the European Union, and Canada.
The flurry of BIT negotiations and the conclusion of the model framework review come at a time when India has recorded a slump in FDI inflows amid persistent external shocks. Net FDI inflows have declined over the past four years, from an annual average of $40 billion between 2019-20 and 2021-22 to $6.95 billion in 2025-26.
