RIYADH: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Jassim Al-Budaiwi said Sunday that negotiations to sign a free trade agreement between the GCC countries and New Zealand are going in the right direction as both sides have agreed on most of its chapters. This came in a press statement issued by the GCC General Secretariat after Al-Budaiwi received New Zealand's Minister of Commerce, Agriculture, and Forestry and Assistant Foreign Minister Todd McClay at the Secretariat headquarters in Riyadh.

The statement added that the two sides praised the efforts of the teams concerned with the ongoing negotiations on the free trade agreement, stressing that the agreement will contribute in creating broader opportunities for investments and strengthening economic relations to serve common interests. It pointed out that the two sides also discussed a number of topics of common interest, most notably reviewing Gulf-New Zealand relations and ways to develop them in all fields, as well as following up on the developments of the memorandum of understanding and the joint action plan signed between the two parties. - KUNA