New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is on a two-day visit to India, said that UK hopes to complete a free trade deal with India by the end of 2022 that could boost annual bilateral trade by billions of pounds.
As per reports, the trade agreement could almost double British exports to India and by the year 2035, bolster total trade by 28 billion pounds ($38 billion) every year. In 2019, the total trade was worth 23 billion pounds.
Johnson landed in Gujarat earlier on Thursday for his two-day visit to India. He was accorded a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad.
According to a report by news agency ANI, Johnson said, “We're hoping to complete another free trade agreement with India by the end of the year, by the autumn.”
Notably, the India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-UK virtual summit held between Modi and Johnson in May last year.
At the summit, the two sides adopted a 10-year-roadmap to expand ties in the key areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections, among others.
On the defence front, the sources had earlier said that UK is ready to extend its cooperation in realising PM Narendra Modi’s dream of making India a hub of defence manufacturing.
“There's also the opportunity for us to deepen our security and defence partnership. As you know, the UK is making an Indo-Pacific tilt in our integrated review of our national defence and security strategy,” ANI quoted the UK Prime Minister as saying.
Talking about the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Johnson said, “As I think everybody understands, India and Russia have historically very different a relationship, perhaps, than Russia and the UK have had over the last couple of decades. We have to reflect that reality, but clearly, I'll be talking about it to Narendra Modi.”
He further added, “They've already raised Ukraine, as you can imagine with Prime Minister Modi. And actually, if you look at what the Indians have said, they were very strong in their condemnation of the atrocities in Bucha.”
According to sources familiar with Johnson’s visit to India, although the talks between Johnson and Modi will take place amid the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine, they will mainly stress on bolstering bilateral ties between the two countries.