LONDON: Britain and India are committed to an enhanced trade partnership as the first step towards a positive free trade agreement in the future and plans are expected to be further formalized during the visit of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to India in the coming months, the UK’s Minister for South Asia has said.
Lord Tariq Ahmad, who is also Minister for the Commonwealth in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), said the strong relationship between the two countries has been further intensified with the vaccine collaboration to help fight the common enemy in the form of COVID-19.
“We have been undertaking steps to remove barriers to trade and the hope is that an Enhanced Trade Partnership will lead to a positive free trade agreement ( FTA) with India in future,” said Ahmad, in an interaction to mark India’s 72nd Republic Day celebrations on Tuesday.
“The ultimate goal is an FTA and the first steps in that direction are expected to form part of the initiatives that will be unveiled when the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) visits India later this year,” he said.
The minister indicated that many practical steps in the shape of business-to-business relations, which fully utilise the “under-leveraged” Indian diaspora in the UK, are also in the works.
Alongside, a “real professional partnership” that takes on board the mobility of skilled professionals and students between the two countries will be at the heart of a further strengthened bilateral relationship for a post-Brexit Global Britain.
