G20 Summit: Remain Committed To Trade Deal With India, Says UK PM Rishi Sunak

We remain committed to trade deal with India, but we need to get these things right: UK PM Rishi Sunak in Bali, Indonesia

We remain committed to trade deal with India, but we need to get these things right, said UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Bali, Indonesia during the G20 Summit.

  

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his United Kingdom counterpart Rishi Sunak after assuming office for the first time on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit. This is the first face-to-face meeting that took place between both leaders. Earlier, in October, PM Modi and Sunak spoke on the phone and emphasized the importance of an early conclusion of "a balanced and comprehensive" Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.

Sunak gave the go-ahead for 3,000 visas for young professionals from India to work in the UK each year. The British government said India is the first visa-national country to benefit from such a scheme, highlighting the strength of the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership agreed last year.

"Today the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme was confirmed, offering 3,000 places to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work for up to two years," the UK Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet. This announcement in the Downing Street readout came hours after Sunak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit. This was their first meeting after the first Indian-origin British PM assumed office last month.

Under the new UK-India Young Professionals Scheme, the UK will offer 3,000 places annually to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work in UK for up to two years. The scheme will be reciprocal.

"The launch of the scheme is a significant moment both for our bilateral relationship with India and the UK's wider commitment to forging stronger links with the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen both our economies," Downing Street said in a statement.
It said the UK has more links with India than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region. Nearly a quarter of all international students in the UK are from India, and Indian investment into the UK supports 95,000 jobs across the UK.

The UK is currently negotiating a trade deal with India - if agreed it will be the first deal of its kind India has made with a European country. The trade deal would build on the UK-India trading relationship, already worth 24 billion pounds, and allow the UK to seize the opportunities presented by India's growing economy.

(With agencies' Inputs)