Modi and Sunak review bilateral strategic ties in Hiroshima

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reviewed the bilateral strategic partnership, including progress in India-UK FTA negotiations, during talks with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak. Modi met Sunak on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. During this, the two leaders also agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas such as trade and investment and science and technology. Modi tweeted, “The meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was very fruitful. We discussed expanding cooperation in trade, innovation, science and other such areas.

The Ministry of External Affairs tweeted, “Boosting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had fruitful talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Hiroshima. The two leaders reviewed the bilateral strategic partnership, along with taking stock of the progress made in the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) negotiations between India and the UK. The ministry said Modi and Sunak agreed to deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas such as trade and investment, science and technology, higher education and people-to-people ties between the two countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that Modi and Sunak also discussed India’s G-20 chairmanship. It said Modi looked forward to welcoming Sunak to New Delhi for the G-20 summit. India and the UK have been negotiating an FTA since January last year with the aim of agreeing on a comprehensive agreement that is expected to significantly increase bilateral trade ties between the two countries to an estimated 34 billion pounds by 2022.

The ninth round of India-UK FTA talks between the two countries concluded last month with detailed discussions in several policy areas. Recently, Harjinder Kang, the UK’s chief negotiator for the FTA, has been appointed as the country’s new Trade Commissioner for South Asia and Deputy High Commissioner for Western India in Mumbai. According to official figures from the British government, India was the UK’s 12th largest trading partner in the last four quarters at the end of the third quarter of 2022. Trade between the two countries was 2.1 per cent of Britain’s total trade. Modi and Sunak hugged each other before the conversation. Modi arrived in Hiroshima on Friday to attend the three sessions of the G-7 summit at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

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