BIMSTEC nations, excluding Bangladesh, sign free trade deal.

(From Press Trust of India)

Jaishree Balasubramanian Phuket (Thailand), Feb 8 (PTI) India and five other countries of the BIMSTEC economic grouping Sunday signed a free trade agreement described as a bridge between the crucial markets of South Asia and South East Asia.

Bangladesh is the lone member of the seven-nation economic bloc which has opted not to sign the Framework Agreement on Free Trade Area (FTA) as it had some "procedural problems", a delegate said. The treaty has to be approved at the summit-level meeting of their leaders which Thailand has suggested could be held in July.

India's Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley and his counterparts from Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka inked the agreement after two days of …