The Commerce and Industry Minister, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, on Wednesday said that there is a ongoing discussion with Russia, United States (US) and European Union (EU) to commence negotiation on Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) based on the new model text.

BITs help to project India as an attractive Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination, as well as protect outbound Indian FDI, by increasing the comfort level and boosting the confidence of investors by assuring a minimum standard of treatment and non-discrimination.

The first Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) was signed by India on March 14, 1994. Since then, till date, the Government of India has signed many BITs with different countries. These BITs were largely negotiated on the basis of the Indian Model BIT of 1993 which was later amended in 2003.

The 1993 Model BIT text contained provisions which were susceptible to broad and ambiguous interpretations by arbitral tribunals. Further, significant changes have occurred globally regarding BITs, in general, and investor-state dispute resolution mechanism, in particular.

Accordingly, India started the process for review and revision of the earlier Model BIT, and came out with a revised Model BIT version, in December, 2015.