External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Friday underlined the importance of economic cooperation in a world that is still recovering from the global economic meltdown.

He was chairing a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee on external affairs at the newly-restored Taj hotel here, a key target of the 26/11 terrorists, that discussed ways to accelerate India's economic diplomacy and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with a number of countries.

India is currently negotiating FTAs with Japan, Israel, New Zealand and the South African Customs Union (SACU). It had signed an FTA with South Korea in January, and this is expected to push the lowly annual trade of $10.4 billion.

India has so far signed eight FTAs.

The meeting also discussed leveraging India's trade, foreign investments and exports.

The external affairs ministry had created a new investment and technology promotion division to coordinate with the commerce ministry, the department of industrial policy and promotion, the department of economic affairs, the export promotion councils and industry chambers to facilitate trade and exports.