New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) India and the European Union (EU) finally restarted the negotiations for the long-pending trade and investment agreement on Friday after a gap of over eight years.

The negotiations took place in the Belgian capital Brussels, over a year after India and the EU announced to resume the talks for a balanced and comprehensive trade pact.

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"@EU_Commission is pleased to announce that EU & India have formally relaunched negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement. I was pleased to welcome Minister @PiyushGoyal to Brussels for talks today," EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in a tweet.

In April, EU Ambassador to India Ugo Astuto had said India and the European Union are eyeing to firm up the comprehensive trade and investment pact before the commencement of the electoral cycles on both sides in 2024.

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The negotiations for the ambitious free-trade agreement were suspended in 2013 after several rounds of talks spanning six years.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)