‘Modi eyes Diwali deadline for FTA’

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi has set a “very ambitious desire” to get the India-UK Free Trade Agreement signed by Diwali and British prime minister Liz Truss wants the UK to “match the pace and ambition” of the Indian leader, foreign secretary James Cleverly said.

Cleverly also paid tribute to the UK-India bilateral relationship, which he described as a “huge plus” but noted it also meant “quite understandably, there is a desire to have a very, very wide-ranging, meaningful free trade agreement”.

In an interview in New York last Wednesday (21) on the margins of the high-level UN General Assembly session, the foreign secretary said, “Obviously, prime minister Modi has set a very ambitious desire to get a free trade agreement signed by Diwali.

“Now that means that both us and Indian negotiators are going to have to work very, very hard but we are very willing to do so.

“We want to make sure the deal that we do, ideally by Diwali, is the first step in a continually evolving trade and economic relationship with India. So, there’s a lot to do and not a lot of time.”

Cleverly said he was keen to “match the ambition of the Prime Minister.