India, UK in talks to get free trade agreement done by Diwali, says PM Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the second day of his India visit that governments are in talks with negotiators to get the bilateral free trade agreement between India and the UK done by Diwali, the Hindu festival that will fall in the end of October.

The end-of-the-year timeline for an interim pact was set in January 2022 by the India-UK FTA talks.

The interim early harvest agreement pact aims to achieve up to 65 per cent of coverage for goods and up to 40 per cent coverage for services. The coverage for goods is expected to go up to 90 plus percentage of goods by the time the final agreement is inked.

Johnson said that the ties between India and Britain are one of the defining friendships of our times after holding extensive talks with PM Modi in the areas of defence, trade and clean energy.

He also announced that the UK government is creating an open general export license for India, which will reduce bureaucracy and delivery times for defence procurement.

The British PM said that his government has agreed on a new defence and security partnership.

PM Modi said during the meeting that the two leaders reviewed progress made in implementation of Roadmap 2030 and also set some goals for the future. He said that progress is being made in negotiations for a free trade agreement between India and the UK.

Modi said that there was a need for a free, open, inclusive and rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.

PM Modi said that we reiterated our support for peace, stable and secure Afghanistan on the issue of Afghanistan's current political situation after Taliban took control of the government. He said that it is necessary that Afghan territory is not used to spread terrorism in other countries. Ahead of the talks, the UK said it would offer India the best of British know-how on building battle-winning aircraft and support the country's needs for new technology to respond to threats in the Indian Ocean.

The British High Commission said that the UK will issue an Open General Export Licence OGEL to India to cut the delivery period for defence procurement.

The prime minister of Britain arrived in India on Thursday on a two-day visit in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war.

During the virtual summit between Modi and Johnson in May last year, the India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The two sides adopted a 10 year roadmap to expand trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections among others at the summit.

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