New Delhi, Feb. 16 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday that the country needs a new model for bilateral investment treaties (BITs), saying the 2016 template is "inadequate" for meeting countries' requirements and that investment treaties should be kept separate from future free trade agreements.
Speaking at the inauguration of the first postgraduate certificate course on international commercial and investment treaty arbitration, Sitharaman emphasised that including BITs within free trade agreements (FTAs) often reduces them to "a negotiating card," compromising their fundamental purpose.
"Issues related to BIT are so unique to the sovereign that we think BIT should be negotiated as a standalone negotiation rather than...