Rishi Sunak is committed to moving forward fast on the UK-India FTA

Britain’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, stated that the UK government is still committed to moving as quickly as possible to reach an agreement on the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with India, even though the majority of the crucial negotiations were wrapped up at the end of the previous month.

The British Indian leader informed Parliament at a House of Commons debate on the G20 Summit in Indonesia on Thursday that, in his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since taking office at 10 Downing Street, he had discussed the FTA’s progress.

Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, and members of his own Conservative Party questioned him over the timescale for the completion of the agreement with India.

“I discussed the free trade agreement with India, and both the Prime Minister of India and I committed our teams to working as quickly as possible to see if we can bring a successful conclusion to the negotiations,” said Sunak.

“Our relationship and partnership with India are much broader than just a trading relationship. I was pleased to discuss increasing our security cooperation with India,” said Sunak.

“Without negotiating all these things in public, I am pleased that the majority of the substantive negotiation conversations were concluded by the end of October. We will now work at pace with the Indian teams to try to resolve the issues and come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion,” he said.

More generally, he underlined the UK government’s position that he would not forgo quality for speed since it is crucial to take the time to get trade agreements correctly, especially in light of the missed Diwali deadline for the FTA.

Sunak was asked about his other conversations with Modi and whether he brought up issues like India’s position regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the UK being an exception within Europe to not be offered the e-visa facility, both of which he confirmed were discussed and will continue to be on the government’s agenda.

He cited the G20 communique’s robust criticism of Russia’s actions as a major source of consolation for India’s non-aligned stance on the Ukraine war.

“Our relationship and partnership with India are much broader than just a trading relationship. I was pleased to discuss increasing our security cooperation with India,” said Sunak.

“We also announced the mobility scheme to enable young people from India to come here and young Brits to go there, which is a sign of what is possible. Such exchanges are positive both for our countries and for the young people who benefit,” he said, with reference to the new UK-India Young Professionals Scheme launched at the summit earlier this week involving 3,000 new reciprocal visa offers annually for under-30s dubbed as “good for both Indian students and British students who want to go back and forth”.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, a Labour MP of Indian descent, questioned the new programme in light of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s fiery remarks against overseas students that so inflamed people in India. These remarks included dog whistles and anti-immigrant language.

Braverman’s contentious comments about Indians being the largest group of visa overstayers were another target of the Labour Leader’s criticism of her for casting doubt on the FTA agreement with India after she had already indicated she would not support it.

“The Home Secretary is rightly focused there is nothing dog whistle’ about it on clamping down on illegal migration, which the British people rightly expect and demand, and it is something that she and this government will deliver,” Sunak said in defence of his Cabinet minister.

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