Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a dialog along with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak and mentioned the early conclusion of the Free Commerce Settlement between India and the UK. The 2 leaders additionally affirmed their dedication to additional bolster the bilateral Complete Strategic Partnership between the 2 nations.
“Had dialog with PM @RishiSunak. We reaffirmed our dedication to additional strengthen the bilateral Complete Strategic Partnership and work for early conclusion of a mutually helpful Free Commerce Settlement,” PM Modi posted on X.
The Prime Minister’s Workplace mentioned in an announcement, “The leaders reaffirmed their dedication to proceed to strengthen the bilateral Complete Strategic partnership. They expressed satisfaction on the progress made underneath the Roadmap 2030 in various areas together with commerce, funding, defence, safety, rising applied sciences and others. They assessed positively the progress made in direction of early conclusion of a mutually helpful Free Commerce Settlement.”
It additional added, “The 2 leaders additionally exchanged views on regional and international developments of mutual curiosity. Each leaders agreed to stay in contact and exchanged greetings on the upcoming festive event of Holi.”
Notably, India and the UK are negotiating a Free Commerce Settlement (FTA). Talks for FTA between India and the UK began in 2022. The 13th spherical of negotiations between India and the UK happened from September 18 to December 15, 2023. Earlier in January, throughout Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s go to to the UK, Rishi Sunak expressed hope that the continued FTA negotiations could possibly be dropped at a profitable conclusion quickly.
The India-UK Free Commerce Settlement was additionally mentioned throughout Exterior Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar’s assembly with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his latest go to to the nation in November. In the meantime, India signed a USD 100 billion Commerce and Financial Partnership Settlement (TEPA) with the European Free Commerce Affiliation (EFTA) bloc on Sunday.
The European Free Commerce Affiliation is a commerce organisation and free commerce space consisting of 4 European states- Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. As a part of the settlement, EFTA has dedicated to advertise investments to extend the inventory of overseas direct investments by USD 100 billion in India within the subsequent 15 years, and to facilitate the era of 1 million direct employment in India, via such investments.
Prime Minister Modi hailed the free commerce pact, terming it a “watershed second” within the historical past of ties between the 5 nations, whereas including that it’s a “win win scenario” for each nations. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal co-chaired the assembly on the India-EFTA commerce settlement within the nationwide capital on Sunday.
