India, UK deal to begin in autumn

5: India and the UK will begin negotiations for a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) from autumn this year after the Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) was formally signed between the trade ministers on both sides on Wednesday. Following a virtual meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss confirmed that the ETP agreed between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson at a virtual summit on Tuesday has been officially signed off.

The trade and investment agreement worth around 1 billion pounds has been pegged as aiming for a "quantum leap" in the UK-India relationship, with India elevating the status of its relationship with the UK to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”. "Today I signed the UKIndia Enhanced Trade Partnership with my friend Piyush Goyal,” Truss said on Twitter soon after her virtual meeting with the Indian Cabinet minister.

“Together, we have committed to: negotiating a comprehensive free trade deal, starting this autumn; more than doubling trade by 2030; and reducing barriers to trade in key industries,” she said.

The sign off follows talks between Modi and Johnson, which culminated in the two leaders agreeing on a ‘2030 Roadmap’ as a framework for strengthening ties across health, climate, trade, education, science and technology, and defence. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is in London for the G7 Summit, said he joined those discussions and declared there was a “new energy and thinking” for UK-India relations visible at the virtual summit.

"”We are at an inflection point in our contemporary relations. We have two Prime Ministers very determined to take the relationship to a high level,” the minister said, during a virtual Global Dialogue Series. —