By Alistair Smout<\/p>\n
MUMBAI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British counterpart Keir Starmer hailed the potential on Thursday of their months-old trade deal to transform commercial links, as London unveiled further Indian investment in Britain.<\/p>\n
Starmer is in the financial capital of Mumbai on a two-day visit to India, joined by more than a hundred leaders from the business, culture and university sectors, as he rushes to harvest the trade deal signed in July.<\/p>\n
The deal agreed to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars, and allow more market access for businesses in the world’s fifth- and sixth-largest economies, aiming to boost two-way trade by a further 25.5 billion pounds ($34 billion) by 2040.<\/p>\n
Starmer’s visit, accompanied by the largest-ever business delegation, “reflects the new energy and broad vision” in the partnership, Modi said after talks with the British prime minister.<\/p>\n
“India\u2019s dynamism and the UK\u2019s expertise together create a unique synergy,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi.<\/p>\n
“Our partnership is built on trust … it is a clear reaffirmation of our shared commitment to … build a brighter future for the people of both our nations.”<\/p>\n
Starmer said the focus of his visit was about doubling down on the potential of the trade deal, expected to take effect within a year.<\/p>\n
“When we leave India tonight, I expect that we will have secured major new investments creating thousands of high-skilled jobs in the sectors of the future.”<\/p>\n
Starmer also backed New Delhi’s long-running desire to become a member of the United Nations Security Council, saying India should take up its rightful place there.<\/p>\n
The leaders gave few specifics but listed cooperation in technology, education, defence and security, AI and advanced communications as areas of special focus.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Starmer’s office said 64 Indian companies would collectively invest 1.3 billion pounds ($1.75 billion) in Britain, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
Both leaders are set to participate in a financial technology conference on Thursday before Starmer flies home.<\/p>\n
The trade ministers of both countries agreed in a meeting on Wednesday to work more closely in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, digital trade, clean energy and services, India’s commerce ministry said in a summary.<\/p>\n
But they do not agree on everything.<\/p>\n
After Modi wished Russian President Vladimir Putin a happy birthday on Tuesday, Starmer joked to reporters that he would not be doing the same, given Britain’s strong backing for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia over its invasion.<\/p>\n
Britain says it respects India’s strategic independence and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, a former trade minister who joined the delegation, told reporters the issue had not prevented Starmer from leveraging close ties with Modi to grow the UK economy.<\/p>\n
($1=0.7444 pounds)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in Mumbai, Manoj Kumar and Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi; Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alistair Smout MUMBAI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British counterpart Keir Starmer hailed the potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,730,807,22817,1144,712,13128,16,15,160559,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-485232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-india","14":"tag-keir-starmer","15":"tag-narendra-modi","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-trade-deal","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-university-sectors","22":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115343354993828543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}