UK PM hopes FTA with India to be in place by 2022-end

Johnson, the first British PM to visit Gujarat, is ready to offer more visas to India in return for the FTA deal that could immensely boost annual bilateral trade, he was quoted as telling reporters on the plane on his way to India.

The United Kingdom feels the planned FTA could almost double its exports, boosting annual bilateral trade by £28 billion (₹2.8 trillion) per annum. The total bilateral trade was worth £23 billion (₹2.2 trillion) in 2019, according to UK government statistics.

Johnson’s also met Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, and discussed thrust areas of cooperation, including aerospace and defence, energy transition, climate action and human capital development.

Ahead of his official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in New Delhi, Johnson announced that UK and Indian businesses had confirmed more than £1 billion of new investments and export deals, set to create 11,000 jobs across the United Kingdom.

He is expected to discuss next-generation defence and security collaboration across the five domains—land, sea, air, space and cyber—in meetings with Modi. This includes support for new Indian-designed and built fighter jets, offering the best of British know-how on building battle-winning aircraft, an official release from the UK government said.

The United Kingdom will also seek to support India’s requirements for new technology to identify and respond to threats in the Indian Ocean.

To support greater defence and security collaboration with India over the coming decade, the United Kingdom will issue an open general export licence (OGEL) to India, reducing bureaucracy and shortening delivery times for defence procurement. This will be the first OGEL of the United Kingdom in the Indo-Pacific region, the release said.

Johnson will also discuss new cooperation on clean and renewable energy in New Delhi today.

Both sides are launching a virtual Hydrogen Science and Innovation hub to accelerate affordable green hydrogen, as well as new funding for the Green Grids Initiative announced at COP26, and collaboration on joint work on the electrification of public transport across India.

Both the governments are committing up to £75 million to roll out adaptable clean tech innovations from India to the wider Indo-Pacific and Africa, and working together on international development and girls education.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)