New Delhi: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit India for two days, from October 8 to 9. This will be his first trip to the country since he took office in July last year. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Saturday that the visit is a great chance to reaffirm the common vision of India and the UK and make their collaboration even stronger for the future.
Starmer will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai on October 9 to talk about a wide range of topics related to the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership under the “Vision 2035” roadmap, which is a 10-year strategy to improve collaboration between the two countries.
The main parts of the roadmap are:
Investment and trade
New ideas and technology
Safety and security
Energy and climate
Education and health
Relationships between people
The leaders could talk about how well the initiatives are doing and what new prospects the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which was signed in July during PM Modi’s visit to London, could provide. The deal’s goals are to make it easier to do business in both countries, lower tariffs, and double trade between the two countries by 2030.
Starmer and Modi will also be at the sixth Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, where they will give keynote speeches and talk to industry professionals, innovators, and policymakers.
The two nations negotiated a free trade agreement and a double contribution convention. This means that UK employers of Indian workers don’t have to pay UK social security contributions.
India and the UK traded $55 billion with each other in 2023-24. The UK was India’s sixth-largest investor, putting $36 billion into the country. Indian companies have invested almost $20 billion in the UK, and almost 1,000 of them employ about 100,000 people there.
The trade accord lowers tariffs on important goods like British automobiles and whisky, which will make it easier for the two countries to work together on economic and geopolitical issues over the next ten years.