Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson set Diwali deadline for India-UK free trade deal – Reuters
LONDON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, have set the negotiating teams of the two parties a Diwali deadline for the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the Kingdom United during bilateral talks in New Delhi on Friday.
Diwali this year falls on October 24 and this new target has been pushed back from the previous timeline of concluding a deal by the end of this year. Johnson, on the final day of his two-day visit to India, said the FTA could double Indo-British trade by 2030 and lower consumer prices.
“Today Prime Minister Modi and I told our negotiators to do this before Diwali in October. This could double our trade and investment by the end of the decade, lower prices for consumers and increase wages in the UK by up to 3% billion pounds,” Johnson said.
On the eve of the visit, officials confirmed that four of the FTA’s 26 chapters had been finalized in the first two rounds since negotiations began in January and that “significant progress” had been made in all 22 chapters. remaining.
The third round of talks between the negotiating teams is expected to start in New Delhi next week.
The visiting British Prime Minister, who was greeted by Modi with a guard of honor at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier on Friday, stressed that Indian investment is already supporting almost half a million British jobs and that the population India is greater than that of the United States and the European Union (EU) combined, there is a lot of potential to take trade and investment between India and the United Kingdom to a “whole new level” .
“Our new and expanded defense and security partnership will enable India to strengthen its own national defense industry as well as protect vital common interests in the Indo-Pacific. India is an incredible rising power in Asia, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world – already worth £2.25 trillion – and projected to be the third largest economy in the world by 2050,” Johnson said.
“India is also our biggest partner in the Indo-Pacific, which is increasingly the geopolitical center of the world, with two-thirds of humanity and one-third of the global economy – and that share is growing. every year,” he said.
Meanwhile, a reading from Downing Street described the Johnson-Modi talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi as “thorough”, during which Johnson thanked Modi for the “opportunity to visit the great nation of India again “.
“Leaders agreed on a new defense and security partnership, including working together on submarine capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, helicopters, the development of Indian-made combat aircraft and ‘other defense equipment,’ a Downing Street spokesman said.
“They also discussed how the UK and India are working together to reduce the cost of clean energy and significantly increase our renewable capacity, particularly in green hydrogen and offshore wind,” said added the spokesperson.
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