NEW DELHI: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Mumbai on Thursday, as he brought the largest-ever British business delegation to expand ties under a recently signed free trade agreement.
Starmer arrived in India’s financial capital on Wednesday. It is his first visit since taking office, and he is accompanied by Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle, Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander, Investment Minister Jason Stockwood, and 125 CEOs, entrepreneurs, university vice chancellors and cultural leaders.
The trip follows the signing of the multibillion-dollar UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement during Modi’s visit to London two months ago.
“India and the UK are natural partners,” the Indian PM said in a joint press briefing at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, the official residence of the governor of the state of Maharashtra, where he received Starmer.
“There are immense possibilities in the technology partnership between India and the UK. We are working to connect the UK’s industrial expertise and R&D with India’s talent and scale.”
In a joint statement, India and the UK announced a dozen of tech, innovation, education and trade initiatives and planned investments, including the establishment of an India-UK connectivity and innovation center and a joint center for AI, and a critical minerals guild to strengthen supply chains.
Lancaster University is set to open its campus in Bengaluru, and the University of Surrey in Gujarat’s GIFT City.
“The UK and India stand side by side as global leaders in tech and innovation. And so we’ve also taken the opportunity to deepen our cooperation through our Technology Security initiative with new commitments on AI, advanced communication, defense technologies, and much, much more,” Starmer said.
“More British universities will be setting up campuses right here in India, making Britain, India’s leading international provider of higher education.”
While the UK-India free trade deal is expected to take effect next year, as it is yet to be ratified by both governments in a process that usually takes about 12 months, the British prime minister sought to build on its potential with the Mumbai visit.
“When we leave India later on tonight, I expect that we will have secured major new investments, creating thousands of high-skilled jobs in the sectors of the future for both of our nations,” he said.
Under the new pact, about 99 percent of Indian goods will get duty-free access to the UK market.
It will also halve import duties on UK-produced whiskey and gin from 150 percent, followed by a further decrease to 40 percent in a decade. Tariffs on automobiles will be reduced from 100 percent to 10 percent.
The FTA has been widely estimated to increase bilateral trade by 60 percent. Currently, it stands at about $54 billion, according to UK Department for Business and Trade data, with UK exports to India estimated at $21.7 billion and imports at $32.4 billion.
