Abbott, who met Indian minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal on December 2 and had an extensive discussion on the ways to expand bilateral ties, asserted that a free trade agreement (FTA) is an important opportunity for India and Australia and Canberra is confident it can do an early harvest trade agreement between India and Australia.

"Based on our last night discussion, it (the deal) will be bigger rather than smaller, and in step two—the most comprehensive deal—will be in the course of 2022," he was quoted as saying by a news agency.

Goyal twitted that there is a huge potential for India and Australia to further energize their trade relationship through an FTA.

In September, India and Australia had announced they would sign a comprehensive FTA by the end of 2022 and an early harvest trade deal by Christmas later this year.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)