India and Qatar on Tuesday agreed to elevate the bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership, making this the fifth such agreement New Delhi has signed with a GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) country.

The agreement seeks to deepen cooperation in trade, energy, investment and security as well as in the regional and international fora, secretary of overseas Indian affairs in the external affairs ministry, Arun Kumar Chatterjee, said.

India already has a strategic partnership with four of the six GCC countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait. This new strategic partnership agreement was signed during the state visit of Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hammad Al Thani.

Chatterjee said the two sides also explored the possibility of signing a free trade agreement in future, adding that negotiations were on for the GCC-FTA talks.

He said the two countries had decided to double bilateral trade to $28 billion over the next five years.